Bloomberg, Sony Corp (ADR) SNE and its shareholders should thank Adele for the company's rise in operating profit.
Bloomberg noted that Adele single-handedly spearheaded its growth in sales and operating profit at Sony's music division. In fact, thanks to Adele, Sony's music division was the company's most profitable nonfinancial business.
Sony's success in music was attributed to its digital business, which grew 23 percent, led by a 57 percent spike in revenue from streaming music. As a whole, music accounted for 7.6 percent of Sony's sales.
However, Bloomberg added that while sales and operating profit at Sony's music division rose last year, investors shouldn't count on a repeat performance this year. In fact, Sony itself guided towards an 11 percent decrease in revenue from music this year.
Meanwhile, Sony's slate of album releases is somewhat lack-luster. Meghan Trainor, Sony's number four artist last year, will release a new album titled "Thank You" next week. Other releases include albums from Usher, Pitbull, Bob Dylan and Celine Dion.
"Given Sony's bearishness for the year ahead, the company doesn't expect any of those to become a runaway success," Bloomberg concluded in its report.
Shares of Sony were trading essentially flat Thursday morning, after seeing an initial jump shortly after the opening bell.
