Samsung Electronics reported third-quarter results Thursday and closed 4.13 percent lower, having been down as much as 5 percent earlier in the session.
The company said it became the first global technology firm to clear KRW 100T in quarterly operating profit. Revenue came in at KRW 195.25T, about $124B, against estimates of KRW 195.79T. Operating profit reached KRW 107.44T. Revenue rose 126.88 percent from a year earlier and 13.85 percent sequentially, with operating profit up 783.11 percent year on year. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of record revenue and profit.
Semiconductors carried it. The chip division reported KRW 147.1T in revenue and KRW 106.5T in operating profit, driven by a ramp in HBM4 sales and server solid-state drives, both of which set records of their own.
Samsung declared KRW 30T in quarterly cash dividends, or 4,601 won per share, and plans to return another KRW 55T to 75T to shareholders this year through dividends and buybacks, with the board finalizing plans in late January 2027. Outside the numbers, the company joined five affiliates in a $1B investment in KKR-backed Helix Digital Infrastructure, taking $500M of it, and it both partners with Mistral AI on chip design and manufacturing and led that startup’s Series D.
The muted reaction says more about expectations than about memory. As eToro’s Josh Gilbert put it, investors have been spoiled enough by the AI trade that a record result now reads as the bare minimum, adding that holding Samsung today means holding a memory maker with a phone business attached.
