Samsung Electronics expects profit to plunge in fourth quarter

By Kwanwoo Jun

Samsung Electronics (KR:005930) expects its fourth-quarter operating profit to fall 35% from a year earlier, missing market expectations and dampening hopes for an earnings recovery led by its semiconductor business.

The world's largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions said in a preliminary earnings forecast Tuesday that its operating profit is expected at 2.800 trillion won ($2.13 billion) for the October-December quarter, compared with KRW4.310 trillion for the same period a year earlier.

The company's operating-profit estimate missed the FactSet-compiled consensus forecast of KRW3.797 trillion for the December quarter.

Weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings results would run against expectations from most market analysts that Samsung's flagship memory-chip business could continue to improve and drive its overall recovery on higher DRAM prices and solid demand for powerful artificial-intelligence computing chips.

The company is set to release its full quarterly results later this month.

Revenue is expected to fall 4.9% to KRW67.000 trillion for the quarter, the South Korean tech giant said.

For 2023, operating profit is expected to plunge 85% to KRW6.540 trillion, while revenue is forecast to fall 15% to KRW258.160 trillion.

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01-08-24 2223ET

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