Samsung Electronics Co Ltd reported on Thursday an estimated 50 percent increase in quarterly operating profit, posting the highest first-quarter earnings since 2018, beating analysts' expectations amid robust chip demand.
Analysts said earnings for the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker were also supported by strong smartphone sales in the quarter, as well as outages at a rival NAND Flash chip factory.
Samsung estimated its first-quarter profit at 14.1 trillion won ($11.6 billion) in its preliminary earnings report, compared to the Refinitiv SmartEstimate at 13.3 trillion won. Revenue likely rose 18% year-over-year to a record 77 trillion won, also above market expectations.
Although memory chip prices declined in the first quarter, analysts say robust demand from data center customers, as well as chip makers' prudent investment spending and limited capacity expansion, supported Samsung's chip revenues, which account for about half of its total profits. .
According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung shipped about 72 million smartphones in the first quarter, down about 11% from a year earlier, largely due to the later-than-usual release of its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22.
p>Samsung is due to release detailed earnings reports on April 28.
