Samsung Q2 earnings guidance shows slight improvement

Samsung Electronics’ earnings for the second quarter of 2019 are forecast to show a slight improvement from the previous quarter due to recovery in the display business, according to its earnings guidance announced Friday. The South Korean tech giant is expected to post 56 trillion won ($47.8 billion) in sales with operating profit of 6.5 trillion won during the April–June period, the guidance showed.

The figures hovered above market expectations that had estimated Samsung to register 54.1 trillion won in sales and 6.1 trillion won in operating profit.

The second-quarter operating profit rose 4.3 percent –on-quarter but dipped 56.3 percent on-year, suggesting that the company’s most lucrative semiconductor business is going downhills due to sluggish market conditions this year.

Samsung didn’t reveal the earnings of each business division in the guidance. 

According market estimates, the semiconductor business is forecast to post around 3 trillion won in operating profit, largely due to a fall in memory chip prices.

The display unit is expected to have seen about 900 billion won in operating profit, owing to increased demand for organic light-emitting diode displays for smartphones from China.

The consumer electronics business is projected to announce an improved performance due to increased sales of refrigerators and air conditioners.

The smartphone unit is forecast to report a poorer profit, because of lower-than-expected sales of Galaxy S10 series, while the network unit is likely to see a noticeable achievement in profit with the commercialization of 5G network.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)