Just as importantly, Samsung increased its operating profit during the same period, going from 4.1 trillion Korean won (~$3.56 billion) in the third quarter of past year to 7.3 trillion Korean won (~$6.3 billion) in the present quarter.
“Today’s surprise results show those blue days are finally over and lend support to the market that it’s about time to give Samsung another look”, Peter Yu, an analyst at BNP Paribas, told Bloomberg.
Analysts also said Samsung’s chip division likely remained its top profit contributor for a fifth straight quarter due to new smartphone launches from a range of manufacturers, while display profits were probably helped by rising sales to clients such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. Sales for the third quarter are expected to reach 51-trillion won, up 7.5% from a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
That’s partly because one of Samsung’s most expensive smartphones, the Galaxy Edge with a curved display, is lagging in sales because of production constraints.
It seems that the company is no longer relying upon smartphone sales as its main source of profits. This compared with a 6.7 trillion won profit tipped by a Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate poll of 30 analysts.
The unexpected on-year gain pushed its shares up by 8.69 percent to end at 1,251,000 won, sending the benchmark index higher.
According to the preliminary statement, earnings from semiconductors were up 54% to KRW3.5 trillion.
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.
Currently, the high-end smartphone market is dominated by Apple while the lower end is dominated by Xiaomi.
The chip business division, which supplies in-house and also to rivals, including Apple, said last month it wanted to expand the logic, or processing, chips business to add to its leading position in memory chips.
Despite it struggles with other competitors, Samsung Electronics Co.is optimistic that its third-quarter profit will rebound after nearly two years of sales decline. The company brought forward the launch of its latest phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, to earlier in September, allowing it more time to contribute to the Q3 figures.
Samsung Electronics flags a almost 80% jump in its third-quarter operating profit, which analysts put down to a weaker Korean currency and improved sales of televisions and semiconductors.
