This Friday, Samsung Electronics is due to release only preliminary financial results for the third quarter in order to disclose them in full later, but analysts are already actively predicting that the Korean giant will achieve record results. In any case, operating profit should grow by 30% and reach a record value in three years – $ 14 billion.
The total revenue of the Korean conglomerate, according to experts interviewed by Reuters, will reach a record value of $ 62.7 billion, showing an increase of 11% in annual comparison. The weak forecast for the current quarter by rival Micron should not undermine investor confidence in Samsung, as it is not only the largest manufacturer of memory chips, but also makes smartphones and also provides contract services for the production of chips for third-party customers.
Prices for memory chips rose 7.9% sequentially in the third quarter; while prices for solid-state memory rose 5.5% over that time, based on TrendForce data. Analysts believe memory prices will return to rally next year after some drawdown at the end of this.
According to experts, the semiconductor division of Samsung in the third quarter increased its operating profit by 79% to $ 8.3 billion; which was largely facilitated by the dynamics of prices for memory. The contracting division of the company was supposed to raise the profit rate to double-digit percentages; a figure quite worthy for this type of activity.
According to analysts, the high popularity of the foldable smartphones Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, presented in August; allowed the company to consistently increase the operating profit of the mobile division from $ 2.7 to $ 3.1 billion. By the end of September, Samsung, according to some estimates, managed to realize at least 2 million copies of devices of these models.
Samsung Electronics shares have lost 21% in price, but they may rise soon
The Samsung Electronics stock price peaked on January 11 of this year; since then it has fluctuated with a predominance of decline; and has been falling continuously for the past four months, which has not been observed since 2018. Since the beginning of this month, the shares of the Korean conglomerate have lost 3% in price; and since January 11, the decline has reached 21%. Samsung’s capitalization, thus, decreased by $ 15.3 billion.
Investors are concerned about both the saturation of the smartphone market; and the reversal of the trend in the RAM market; which should begin to fall in price in the near future. At least, Micron’s forecast; expressing such a point of view, has already caused a decline in the share price of the American company. Samsung’s overseas investors are also worried about inflationary processes, among other things.
All this does not prevent Korean analysts from recommending Samsung shares for purchase in 93% of cases, as Bloomberg explains. In the next twelve months, in their opinion, Samsung’s stock price will rise by more than 40%. At the end of this week, the announcement of preliminary data on revenue and operating profit of Samsung will allow the company to exceed the expectations of investors. Some analysts, for example, believe that Samsung finished the third quarter with a record revenue of $ 62.7 billion; and its operating profit grew by 30% at once.
