Samsung may achieve forecast-beating earnings for Q4

Samsung Electronics Co. could pull off market forecast-beating earnings for the fourth quarter of the year on the back of headway made in diversifying its business portfolio, industry sources said Sunday.

According to the data compiled by industry tracker FnGuide, market consensus for the operating income of the South Korean tech company is 7.91 trillion won ($6.66 billion) in the October-December period, compared with 5.2 trillion won posted a quarter earlier.

Many local securities firms, however, have been raising their earnings outlook for the tech behemoth.

In a note to clients, Hi Investment & Securities Co. predicted Samsung's fourth-quarter operating income to reach 8.1 trillion won, helped by the recovering demand for memory chips.

The firm estimated Samsung to post 4 trillion won in earnings in the chip business and 2 trillion won in the handset business despite the global recall of its Galaxy 7 phablets.

Samsung was forced to permanently halt the production of the Note 7 earlier this year after a number of reports at home and abroad said some devices caught fire while charging.

"Samsung Electronics shows that its business performance is returning to the normal track," said Lee Soon-hak, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities, complementing the company's stable business portfolio.

Eugene Investment & Securities forecast Samsung to post earnings beyond 8 trillion won in the last three months of this year, helped by the rising market price of chips and LCD panels, and improved demand of organic light-emitting diode panels.

Soh Hyun-cheol, an analyst at Shinhan Investment & Securities, also expected the tech company to log 8.36 trillion won in earnings in the October-December period. (Yonhap)