Roundup: Samsung's operating profit rises for 4 quarters, topping estimates

Samsung Electronics, one of the world 's major maker of smartphones, memory chips and TVs, said Wednesday that its third-quarter operating profit rose for four straight quarters, topping analysts' estimates.

Preliminary figure for consolidated operating profit was estimated at 7.3 trillion won (6.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the three months ending Sept. 30, the company said in its earnings guidance for the third quarter.

It was up 5.8 percent from the previous quarter's 6.9 trillion won in operating profit, marking the highest in seven quarters since the first quarter of last year.

The third-quarter profit jumped a whopping 79.8 percent compared with the third quarter of last year when the South Korean tech behemoth saw its profit bottom at 4.06 trillion won.

After bottoming out a year earlier, Samsung's operating profit continued to increase for four quarters through the third quarter, boosting expectations for a full-scale recovery from the lackluster earnings trend.

The third-quarter profit took investors by a great surprise as the reading topped a market consensus of about 6.6 trillion won, which was estimated by 22 securities firms according to financial information provider FN Guide.

Revenue was estimated at 51 trillion won in the third quarter, up 5.1 percent from the second quarter and up 7.5 percent from the third quarter of last year.

It marked the first time since the fourth quarter of last year that Samsung's sales exceeded 50 trillion won.

For the first nine months of this year, Samsung's cumulative revenue amounted to 153.5 trillion won, propping up forecasts that the company would achieve the sales target of more than 200 trillion won in 2015.

Samsung does not unveil its estimates for net income and the breakdown of each business when announcing the preliminary figures. The final results will be made known later this month after an external audit.

Market watchers estimated that Samsung's higher-than-expected earnings may have come from solid demand for small organic light emitting diodes (OLED) used for low- and mid-end smartphones.

Its semiconductor business was estimated to have performed well during the quarter on the back of predominant technological prowess in the nano-level making of DRAM chips and brisk sales of system LSI chips.

Moves in the foreign exchange market were estimated to have benefited Samsung's earnings. The U.S. dollar got stronger to the South Korean currency in the quarter on expectations for the U.S. rate hike, raising the converted value of the company's overseas earnings.

Market watchers said it remained to be seen whether Samsung could maintain the earnings surprise in the fourth quarter when key smartphone manufacturers unveil new models and competition becomes fiercer. Endi