The Samsung Q3 2018 has been officially released today. As expected, the company is predicting record profits for the period compared to last year. Analysts have already been expecting it to post record third-quarter profits this year. The company's chip business is once again the star of the show. It has benefitted from increased demand from data centers and improved production yields.
A poll of 15 analysts suggested that Samsung could post an 18 percent increase in profits to 17.2 trillion won or $15.5 billion. It would be a considerable improvement compared to the six percent operating profit growth posted in Q2 2018.
Samsung Q3 2018 earnings guidance
The guidance issued by the company today shows that it has actually smashed its record for the highest profit ever in a single quarter. It expects sales of 65 trillion won or $57.5 billion and 17.5 trillion won or $15.5 billion in operating profits. That's 12 percent higher compared to its previous record of 15.64 trillion won posted in the first quarter of this year.
Samsung will only provide a detailed breakdown of the performance of its many businesses in the full earnings release which will come out later this month. That will help us better understand what has driven these record profits for the company.
The semiconductor business will be the hero yet again. The increase in DRAM chip prices has worked in Samsung's favor even with NAND prices have fallen. Samsung's second quarter earnings had confirmed that the Galaxy S9 sales had been sluggish. However, it's likely that it has got a nice boost with the Galaxy Note 9 in this quarter. The new phablet has been very well received.
