Samsung Shares Soar on Stunning Results
While arch rival Apple's shares were hit this week after financial results failed to meet investor expectations, Samsung had no such troubles. Their latest financial results showed record profits and revealed they sold twice as many smartphones as Apple.
The South Korean company reported net profits for the quarter of $5.97 billion, a company record that was powered by exceptional sales of their Galaxy smart phones, and huge demand for display panels.
The company, which is the largest tech firm according to revenue, saw operating profits rise 91% against the same period last year.
Samsung said its mobile communications business took in 26.25 trillion won in revenue for the quarter, accounting for more than half the company's total.
"The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the US and Europe," said Samsung Senior Vice President Robert Yi.
"However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records," Yi said.
"We expect Samsung will deliver solid earnings growth with product leadership in the consumer branded business, smartphone and TV, and enhanced bargaining power in the component business, semiconductor and display panel," Citi said in a report.
A big factor in their success was their domination of the smartphone market. Samsung shipped 56.9 million of the 162 million smartphones sold globally in the third quarter of 2012, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics. That adds up to a massive 35 percent global share in a market that is also growing at 35 percent annually.
“This was the largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single quarter,” Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics’ executive director, said in a statement.
The South Korean firm launched the Galaxy Note II — the latest version of its oversized smartphone — at the end of September and this week Apple unveiled the iPad Mini.
Galaxy S III shipments have been estimated at 18 million units for the third quarter, while smartphone and overall mobile device shipments are projected at 59 million and 106 million units respectively.
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