Samsung profit to soar on strong Galaxy S21 sales
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday said first quarter profit likely rose 44%, with analysts attributing the surge to brisk sales of smartphones and TVs, albeit tempered by a likely fall in chip earnings after a storm halted US output.
The Korean technology giant forecast January to March operating profit of ₩9.3-trillion (R120.7-billion), matching a weighted average analyst forecast from Refinitiv SmartEstimate.
Analysts said Samsung’s mobile division likely saw operating profit soar more than ₩1-trillion won to about ₩4.15-trillion after its flagship Galaxy S21 smartphone series outsold the previous version by a two-to-one margin in the six weeks since its January launch, according to research provider Counterpoint.
Samsung Electronics on Wednesday expected a market forecast-beating earnings for the first quarter of 2021, estimating its operating profit at $8.3 billion for the first three months of the year, up 44.2 per cent from a year ago. The forecast came as its mobile business fared well, offsetting a relatively tepid performance from the semiconductor business. On a quarterly basis, Samsung s first-quarter operating income was up 2.8 per cent from the last quarter of 2020, and the sales estimate was up 5.6 percent from the previous quarter. Samsung, the world s leading memory chip and smartphone vendor, did not break down performances of its respective business divisions, saying it will announce the detailed earnings later this month.
The South Korean tech giant said the system, which the company developed over the last 30 months, has been first used by its offices in China and Southeast Asian countries. Sams