Sony stock is one of the great technology companies in the world. Sony is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the stock symbol is SNE. The company is based out of Japan and in the past 25+ years has returned nearly 550% to shareholders in additional to regular dividend payouts. The company offers some of the trendiest electronic products in the world and maintains one of the strongest brands in the technology sector along with IBM (NYSE: IBM)and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). In the USA Sony stock is traded as an ADR, or American Depositary Receipt.

Sony stock is an important investment consideration in the technology sector. Sony Corporation is best known, recently, for its successful Playstation gaming console. It also offers products in the Electronics, Pictures, Financial Services, and other electronics product segments. The Sony Playstation console faces fierce competition from the Wii and the X-Box. The company still operates on thin margins ranging between 2-4% depending on the year.

Sony stock has long been a choice for long term investors because of its steady performance. Investors each have a piece of just over 1 billion shares trading on the NYSE. Institutions do not tend to own a ton of Sony with the amount ranging from 10-20% historically, or at 15.5% in 2008. Sony stock trades at a price-to-earnings that is relatively low for a technology company, but its forecasted growth is also much lower than technology powerhouses like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). A large part of its revenue is driven by consumers, or consumer discretionary, with a smaller amount coming from b2b like the two stocks mentioned.