Japan CE Q1 Earnings Preview

Q1 earnings reporting in Japan is set to kick into full swing this week. Nintendo (NTDOY) reported solid results today and boosted its full-year forecast. The focus of investors however is mostly on manufacturers of flat panel LCD and plasma TVs. Click here for the most recent earnings announcement schedule. Overall, Q1 results are expected to be good pretty much across the board but there's increasing concern over a slowdown ahead that will likely keep upward revisions of full-year forecasts on the back burner until this autumn.

The following is an extract of Kiyoshi Takenaka of Reuters.com review of Japanese CE firms:

Sharp Corp (SHCAY) (Tokyo: 6753) -- Expected to report 10% Q1 operating profit increase y-o-y.

Matsushita Electric Industrial (MC) (Tokyo: 6752) -- Expected to report 71% gain in operating profit based on strong sales of plasma TVs and digital cameras. Q1 plasma TV shipments in Japan doubled y-o-y.

Regarding Matsushita and Sharp, Mizuho analyst Koichi Hariya said, "Both ... secured good profits from their flat TV operations in Japan. I wouldn't worry too much about their results. But their outlook is getting a little blurry. Flat TV prices seem to be falling faster after the World Cup."

UBS analyst Fumio Osanai said, "Price falls come hand in hand with volume growth. Matsushita just raised its plasma panel capacity by 50 percent. So it can offset softer prices with greater production. Sharp's next plant won't be operational by October. That will leave it in a tough situation."

Sony Corp (SNE) (Tokyo: 6758) -- Q1 results could be negatively impacted by PlayStation 3 related costs. However, depending on when Sony books PS3 start-up costs, it is expected to have returned to profitability in Q1 based on improved performance in electronics and the strength of "The Da Vinci Code" at the box office. Reuters analysts see operating profit of 18 billion yen ($155m) versus a 15.3 billion yen loss in Q1 last year.

Sanyo Electric Co (SANYY) (Tokyo: 6764) -- Expected to have trimmed losses in Q1 and possibly moved back into the black based on improved profitability at its microchip division.