SoftBank Falls Behind Keyence as Japan’s No. 2 Company By Value

SoftBank Group Corp. relinquished its claim as Japan’s second-largest company by market capitalization to factory-systems maker Keyence Corp., with Masayoshi Son’s tech-investment giant having lost about a third its value since May 10.

Keyence was worth 13.9 trillion yen ($126 billion) in early Friday trading in Tokyo, compared with SoftBank Group’s 13.6 trillion yen. SoftBank’s drop is a combination of price fall and fewer shares in circulation.

Although SoftBank Group reported the largest-ever quarterly profit for a Japanese company, 1.93 trillion yen for the three months through March, investors were disappointed by the lack of any pledge to continue ...