Canon Releases 1Q 2021 Financial Results

Canon has released the first quarter 2021 financial results to the Investor Relations page.

Presentation Material
Results
Supplementary Data

Some Relevant Highlights

"As for Imaging, still benefiting from the effects of new camera bodies, unit sales of both cameras and lenses exceeded our plan. Profitability improved significantly from last year due to a rise in average selling price and an increase in sales efficiency."

"Changes in exchange rates, particularly the yen’s depreciation against the euro, had a positive impact on net sales and operating profit of 7.9 billion yen and 6.0 billion yen, respectively."

"As for cost reduction, improvement was made mainly in fixed costs, reflecting, among others, last year’s decline in factory utilization rates due to the effects of COVID-19."

"As for expenses, while we aggressively invested in the development of new businesses, the effects of structural reforms and more efficient sales activities resulted in a 16.0 billion yen improvement. As a result, SG&A as a percentage of net sales declined significantly from 41.6% in the first quarter of last year to 37.2% this year."

"Our view that the global economy will accelerate towards normalization from the second half of the year has not changed since the beginning of the year."

"As for the semiconductor component shortages and logistical bottlenecks, based on our best estimate at this time, we budgeted for higher costs and delays in delivery. However, the situation is changing day by day. As such, we will continue to monitor the trends going forward."

"We raised our projection to reflect not only the building of a stable business foundation through the promotion of business portfolio transformation, but also acceleration in the global economy recovery."

"Compared to our previous projection, we raised our outlook for net sales by 100.0 billion yen, operating profit by 39.5 billion yen and net income by 25.0 billion yen, and now expect net sales to increase 10.8% to 3.5 trillion yen, operating profit to increase 79.1% to 198.0 billion yen, and net income to increase 68% to 140.0 billion yen."

"For Imaging, because the size of the camera market is already approaching the number of users that are particular about visual expression, we expect the market to be limited to moderate contraction going forward. As current sales of mainly new products are exceeding our plan, we raised our full-year projection for both sales and profit."

"As for cameras, even amid continued restrictions on people’s movement, demand for cameras remains solid, supported by the need for high-quality visual expression. Based on this, we still expect the 2021 camera market to be up slightly or 5.8 million units."

"In the first quarter, revenue was significantly higher than last year, as sales remained strong, driven by the EOS R5 and EOS R6 which were launched in the second half of last year. Additionally, the synergy effect of having competitive camera bodies and expanding our lineup of RF lens, which command high margins, led to an increase in average selling prices. This, and the establishment of efficient online sales activities nurtured through COVID-19 is leading to an improvement in profitability."

"For the full year, reflecting the situation surrounding sales in the first quarter, we not only raised our projection for camera unit sales by 100 thousand to 2.9 million, but also raised our projection for revenue."

"To further strengthen mirrorless camera lineup, in April we announced the development of a new model, the EOS R3, which is equipped with a backside illumination stacked CMOS sensor that achieves high-speed signal processing, which allows for a number of functional improvements such as continuous shooting performance. At the same time, we announced 3 new RF lenses, bringing the total to 22 and we will continue to enhance this lineup going forward. By raising the appeal of the R series, we aim to further raising our market share in the full-frame category and increase sales."

"Additionally, for new types of cameras, such as the PowerShot Zoom that was launch at the end of last year and has attracted quite a bit of attention for its ease of capturing long-range images with one hand, we are steady creating new markets."