Samsung's situation is improving, but profits are still falling

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2023 was not a very good year for Samsung, whose quarterly results were marked by the macroeconomic context. Although it has been able to limit the damage to smartphones by focusing on high-end models, sales of chips (Samsung's other core business) are in sharp decline due to a drop in demand. Recently, it has just announced its forecasts for the results of the third quarter of 2023. And if these results are better than those of the first and second quarters, profits are still down.

According to the publication of Samsung expects revenues of 67 trillion won, or around 47 billion euros. In the third quarter of 2022, Samsung's revenue was 76.78 trillion won. As for operating profits, they amounted to 2.4 trillion won, the equivalent of 1.6 billion euros. Year-on-year, the drop is 78%.

However, according to CNBC, Samsung stock was up on Wednesday. Indeed, the situation seems to be improving. In the first quarter, Samsung's profits were down 96% and it posted its worst performance in 14 years. In the second quarter, Samsung's profits were down 95%. Furthermore, sequentially (compared to the previous quarter), Samsung's profits were up 11.5%. Moreover, these third quarter profits were above analysts' estimates.

Smartphones continue to save Samsung

Samsung's memory chips are used in a variety of devices, including computers and servers. And as inflation continues, businesses and consumers continue to cut spending, affecting demand for electronic components. The smartphone market is also in crisis.
But in this activity, Samsung was able to save the day thanks to its high-end smartphones, whose consumers are less likely to suffer the effects of inflation (with more attractive margins). However, in the third quarter, Samsung launched new models: the Galaxy Z Flip5 and the Galaxy Z Fold5.

< p>However, at this time, details of Samsung's third quarter results are not known. These will be presented before the end of the month, which will allow us to know the performance of the smartphone division, as well as the revenue generated by chip sales.

• Samsung has just presented its forecasts for its third quarter 2023 results
• According to these details, operating profit will be down 78%: this is more acceptable than the poor performances of the first and second quarter
• A priori, the smartphone division is resisting the crisis thanks to high-end models, and the poor performance is mainly due to the chip division

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