Samsung says profits have likely increased, but competition on smartphones is fierce

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The South Korean conglomerate said Friday it expects operating profit of approximately Korean Won 9 trillion ($ 8.2 billion) for the October-December quarter, up from the same period a year earlier, but slightly different from analyst estimates. .

Samsung reports huge profits, but warns of a slump

The company forecast sales of approximately 61 trillion Korean won ($ 56 billion), in line with the expectations of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Samsung’s (SSNLF) stock rose about 1.8% in Seoul on Friday.

The company has not commented on the results, but will report its full fourth-quarter results at the end of this month.

While demand for some of Samsung’s electronics and other components, such as displays, is likely to remain solid, the company is facing tough competition in the smartphone market. Chinese rival Huawei briefly surpassed Samsung last year to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor, while Apple just launched a 5G-supported iPhone.

Still, analysts expect earnings to be strong in 2021 as smartphone and memory chip sales increase. Daiwa analyst SK Kim pointed to the upcoming release of the Samsung Galaxy S21 as a bright spot.

“We see [Samsung] the launch of the Galaxy S series, its main flagship line, earlier than before by the end of January 2021, which we believe will trigger a strong uptick in the number of smartphones, ” Kim wrote in a research note earlier this week.

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