Samsung Electronics stocks hit record

Some brokerages forecast chipmaker’s share price to hit 2 million won


Samsung Electronics stocks surpassed 1.4 million won ($1,240) per share during the trading session on Monday, hitting a record-high.

Predictions emerged in the market that stocks of the world’s biggest memory chipmaker would eventually reach 2 million won within several months.

After climbing to 1.409 million won on the main bourse, Samsung Electronics stocks closed at 1.39 million won, up 16,000 won, or 1.16 percent, from a trading session earlier.

Amid the rally of Samsung Electronics on the back of its all-time high operating profit for the first quarter of 2012, more and more brokerage firms are revising upward their outlook on the company.

Hanwha Securities and Tong Yang Securities have set the target of 2 million won for the company’s stock price. Hyundai Securities and KB Investment & Securities predicted that its share price will come to 1.9 million won.

Samsung has been decoupling with other stocks on the bourse. While the world’s top chipmaker has seen its market cap grow by 18 percent since February, the total market cap of the Seoul bourse, excluding the electronics giant’s, increased by only 1 percent.

Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, has been free from negative external factors, according to some analysts.

“As it has absolutely huge market shares in the global handset and semiconductor markets, it can make up for the disadvantages in price by maintaining quantity,” an analyst said.

Samsung Electronics saw its first-quarter earnings hit an all-time high thanks to brisk global sales of smartphones.

The Korean tech manufacturing giant said that its operating profit reached a record 5.85 trillion won from January to March, up 98.4 percent from 2.95 trillion won a year earlier.

It posted sales of 45.3 trillion won in the first quarter of 2012, up 22.4 percent from about 37 trillion won a year ago, while its net profit was 5 trillion won, up 81 percent from 2.8 trillion won, according to a regulatory filing.

Its revenue and operating profit slightly outperformed earlier expectations of 45 trillion won and 5.8 trillion won, respectively.

A spokesperson for Samsung Electronics pointed out that its IT and mobile business unit was the main contributor to the company’s first-quarter growth.

The unit, which consists of mobile communications, telecommunication systems, IT solutions and digital imaging, saw revenue of 23.2 trillion won, accounting for more than half of total sales.

The company’s flagship “Galaxy” smartphones, developed by the mobile unit, helped boost the company’s overall earnings, the spokesperson said.

“Despite difficult business conditions including low seasonal demand for major products such as PCs and TVs amid a global economic slowdown, we achieved record quarterly results based on our differentiated products and technology leadership,” said Robert Yi, senior vice president and head of investor relations in a press statement.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)