Samsung
Samsung Electronics reported a 10-fold increase in operating profit in the first quarter. This has been attributed to the recovery of chip prices after a significant decline over the past decade.
The company said on Friday, April 5, that operating profit, according to preliminary data, for the first three months of this year increased by 931% to 6.6 trillion won ($4.9 billion). This is reported by Reuters.
Revenue increased by 11% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 71 trillion won, which is lower than LSEG SmartEstimate's forecast of 72.3 trillion won.
As revenue was largely flat and operating profit beat expectations, valuations for NAND flash chip stocks may have improved. Demand for NAND has improved, which could also improve margins, said Park Seong-sun, an analyst at the Korea Investor Relations Service.
Dram flash chip prices rose about 20% in the first quarter, according to data provider TrendForce. , while the prices of Nand flash chips increased by 23-28%. Analysts forecast that Samsung's chip unit will post an operating profit of about 900 billion won in the first quarter, compared with an operating loss of 2.2 trillion won in December.
Samsung Electronics is scheduled to release a detailed report on 30 April.
We note that Samsung's high profits are also due to high sales of its latest smartphones with artificial intelligence. In January, the company launched its Android-based Galaxy S24 phones with generative AI features, which helped Samsung regain the top spot in global smartphone sales in February.