59
Canon
(TSE: 7751)
Japan
May marked the end of an era at Canon. Legendary Chief Executive Fujio Mitarai stepped aside after over a decade at the helm to head Japan's biggest business lobby, Nippon Keidanren. New boss Tsuenji Uchida, who helped Mitarai build Canon's market-leading digital camera division, takes the reins of a company that has registered 28% stock price growth in the past year, aided by record sales and an outstanding 15.5% operating margin. Still, while sales grew 8%, to $33.4 billion, analysts complain investment in new products is needed to reverse falling returns on equity. Cost-cutting will help keep Canon's double-digit margins intact, but a delay in the introduction of introduction of surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) televisions, a new rival to plasma and liquid-crystal-display screens developed with Toshiba, until the fourth quarter of 2007, is a blow.
Company Info |
|
| 2005 Rank | 62 |
| Sales* ($ Millions) | 33,470.4 |
| Sales Growth (over prev. year) |
8 % |
| Profits* ($ Millions) | 3,424.4 |
| Return on Equity | 14.7 % |
| Total Return on Sales (12-mo.) | 33.2 |
| Share Price As of 5/31/06 | 69.18 |
| CURRENT MARKET INFO | TSE: 7751 |
| No. of Employees | |
| Industry | Computers & Peripherals |
| COMPANY WEB SITE > | |
*Trailing 12 months
Stock price data as of 5/31/06
DATA: Standard & Poor's Compustat
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Company Snapshot
Canon manufactures plain paper copying machines, digital multifunction devices, laser beam printers, bubble jet printers, cameras, and steppers. It operates in three segments: business machines, cameras, and optical and other products. The business machines segment comprises three subgroups: office imaging products, computer peripherals, and business information products. Office imaging products group includes office network digital multifunction devices (MFDs), color network digital MFDs, office copying machines, personal-use copying machines, and full-color copying machines. Computer peripherals product group comprises laser beam printers, inkjet printers, inkjet multifunction peripherals, and image scanners. Business information products group consists of micrographic equipment, personal computers, calculators, document scanners, and workstations. The camera segment includes single lens reflex cameras, compact cameras, digital cameras, and digital video camcorders. The optical and other products segment offers steppers for semiconductor chip production, mirror projection mask aligners used in the production of liquid crystal displays, television broadcasting lenses, and medical equipment. The company offers its products in Japan, the U.S., Germany, France, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Korea. Canon was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Tokyo.
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