While a weaker yen, box-office successes like “Skyfall” and the sale of its New York headquarters helped return Sony to its first profit in five years, the company's valuation has still lagged behind its historical highs and its peers.

Sony trades at a 5 percent discount to the value of its net assets, compared with an average price-book ratio of about 2.8 for consumer electronics makers with market capitalizations exceeding $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Sony's enterprise value of 2.2 trillion yen is 4.2 times the average of analysts' estimates for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization this year, the data show. The company's peers trade at an average of about 8.9 times. The value of Sony's entertainment division -- which makes the “Spider-Man” movies through its Culver City, California-based Sony Pictures and also represents music artists including Grammy winner Adele -- isn't being realized in the company's current structure, said Michael Souers, an equity analyst at
Standard & Poor's.

Eoin Treacy's view Sony was seen as emblematic of Japan's rise and has suffered more than most from deteriorating governance and the strength of the Yen. The concurrent rationalisation of some of its units and the weakness of the Yen may well be the catalysts for changing investor perceptions of upside potential. As one of Japan's most high profile exporters, the company will continue to see its competitiveness improve as the Yen weakens, not least against the Korean Won and US Dollar.

The share bottomed in November near ¥770, and has held a progression of higher reaction lows since. It broke out of its most recent short-term range last week and a sustained move below ¥1800 would be required to begin to question recovery potential. (Also see Comment of the Day on December 18th and subsequently)