Samsung on Wednesday said it would post its first quarterly profit gain in two years, beating expectations as strong sales of chips and displays probably offset weakness in its smartphone division.
The South Korean company estimated its July-September operating profit would leap 79.8 percent from a year earlier to 7.3 trillion won ($6.29 billion).
While analysts attributed much of the earnings surprise to the weaker won, Samsung’s shares were on track for their biggest daily percentage gain in nearly 4 years in midday trade as investors saw an end to successive quarters of declining earnings.
“There were worries that overall earnings will continue falling as mobile profits declined, but now the numbers make the case that Samsung has the capacity to withstand weakness from the mobile business,” IBK Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo said.
- Consolidated Sales: Approximately 51.0 trillion Korean won
- Consolidated Operating Profit: Approximately 7.3 trillion Korean won
The above figures are consolidated earnings estimates based on K-IFRS. Korean disclosure regulations do not allow earnings estimates to be provided as a range. Therefore, the above figures are based on the median of the earnings estimate range, as given below.
- Sales: 50.0-52.0 trillion Korean won
- Operating Profit: 7.2-7.4 trillion Korean won
2015 2Q and 2014 3Q consolidated figures based on K-IFRS are as follows:
| (in trillion won) | 2015. 2Q | 2014. 3Q |
| Sales | 48.5 | 47.4 |
| Operating profit | 6.9 | 4.1 |
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