Samsung Electronics is showing a 5% rally in premarket trading after posting an earnings surprise with first-quarter operating profit topping 50 trillion won.
As of 8:17 a.m. on the 7th, Samsung Electronics was trading at 202,500 won, up 9,400 won (4.87%) from the previous session. SK hynix was trading at 912,000 won, up 2.93%.
Earlier, Samsung Electronics disclosed through its preliminary first-quarter results that it recorded sales of 133 trillion won and operating profit of 57.2 trillion won. Compared with a year earlier, sales rose 68.06% and operating profit jumped 755.01%. It is the first time a domestic company has logged more than 50 trillion won in operating profit in a single quarter.
The results far exceeded market expectations. Brokerages had expected Samsung Electronics' first-quarter operating profit to be about 3.81166 trillion won, but the actual figure beat that by more than 50%.
The main driver of the earnings rebound is cited as improved profitability in the semiconductor (DS) division centered on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). As supplies of high value-added products such as HBM3E and HBM4 expanded, price increases in commodity DRAM and NAND flash are analyzed to have driven the earnings improvement.
Accordingly, there was a projection from the brokerage community that Samsung Electronics' share price could go to 360,000 won. Kim Dong-Won, head of research at KB Securities, said, "First-quarter memory prices exceeded expectations and the upward trend will continue in the second quarter," adding, "This year, DRAM prices will rise 250% and NAND prices will rise 187%."
Accordingly, Samsung Electronics' 2026 operating profit was presented at 327 trillion won, up 49% from the prior year, and 2027 operating profit at 488 trillion won, up 62%.