14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has just announced its earnings guidance for the first quarter of this year and the estimates reveal that the South Korean company expects to record the best quarter in over four years.
During the period between January and March, Samsung believes that it will record an operating profit of about $8.8 billion, making it the best quarter since 2013. The actual numbers will be released in a week or two in a report that will reveal Samsung’s performance by categories, including the results for the mobile division.
Samsung expects to record $44.9 billion in sales during the first quarter of this year, while operating profit will reach almost $9 billion. Compared to Q1 2016, Samsung’s operating profit grew by 50%, revealing that the company is slowly recovering after the Galaxy Note 7 disaster, which affected its mobile sales and caused major financial loss.
A Samsung official was involved in a scandal recently
After last year’s Galaxy Note 7 discontinuation in the fall, Samsung relied solely on sales of its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge flagships during the holiday period, one of the most profitable for smartphone makers. To promote the Galaxy S7, the device maker released a Blue Coral variant, the color that was introduced with the Galaxy Note 7.
Reportedly, Samsung spent about $10 billion on advertising last year, and some of the money went on promoting the Galaxy S7, until this March when the Galaxy S8 took its place as the company’s flagship. The predicted high operating profit for the first quarter of this year is presumably generated by strong sales of its chips and OLED displays division, but it does reveal that Samsung is slowly starting to recover. The company has been affected by a number of scandals recently, including bribery charges for Samsung’s heir in the scandal that involved multiple political figures from South Korea.
Samsung’s latest flagship will be released on April 21, while a 6GB of RAM variant is already available for pre-order in Korea and should arrive to China soon. The company’s results for the second quarter will surely be interesting, as they would reflect sales of the latest flagship.