Samsung Electronics says profit may fall less slightly than analyst expectations

Samsung Electronics says profit may fall less slightly than analyst expectations

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday that its quarterly operating profit is likely to fall at a milder pace compared to analyst forecasts, indicating the recovery of memory chip prices from an industry downturn.

The announcement sent Samsung’s share price up 2.2% in morning trade compared to the wider market’s 0.8% fall.

The world’s biggest manufacturer of memory chips has been seeing a drop in revenue since late 2018 as rising inventories strangled prices and a weak global economy prevented spending from data center customers.

Samsung said it expected to report a 34% drop in operating profit at 7.1 trillion Won ($6.04 billion) later this month for its fourth quarter compared to the forecast of 6.5 trillion Won operating profits from Refinitiv SmartEstimate.

Annual operating profit likely fell 53% to 27.7 trillion Won, making it the lowest since 2015.