Samsung delivers an earnings surprise again in Q2

Samsung Electronics is forecast to record an operating profit of over 7.5 trillion won (6.34 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter of this year.

According to the securities and electronics industries on Thursday, Korea's tech giant is likely to record such profit by the end of June given the backlog of orders for smartphones, semiconductors and home appliances. The forecast exceeds the consensus estimate of the operating profit of 6.7 trillion won (5.6 billion dollars) in the second quarter announced by securities firms on Monday.

Samsung delivered an earnings surprise as it had an operating profit of 6.68 trillion won (5.65 billion dollars) in the first quarter, one trillion won (845,000 dollars) greater than the estimate of the securities industry.

Its good performance for two consecutive quarters was driven by the strong sales of the Galaxy S7 series. The cumulative sales performance of the Galaxy S7 series has reportedly increased significantly in major markets such as North America and Europe than the Galaxy S6 series. When it delivered an earnings surprise in the first quarter, the electronics industry had an overwhelmingly negative forecast for the second quarter and onwards. However, the unexpected result apparently reflects the better-than-expected and consistent sales of the Galaxy S7 series.

However, it is likely to see deterioration in performance in the third quarter when the effect of the Galaxy S7 series wears off. Currently, it has no strategic product in the pipeline. For such reason, Samsung Electronics is said to release a new model of Galaxy Note in August, a month earlier than previous years, this year following last year.

김지현기자 jhk85@donga.com