Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) said in a statement on Friday that it is well on track to post another record profitable quarter, while, on the other hand, rival HTC Corp (TPE:2498) posted its first ever quarterly loss since going public in 2002. Samsung will post its third quarter results towards the end of October.
Guidance surpasses the previous quarter numbers
The South Korean electronic major has given operating profit guidance in the range of $9.2 billion to $9.6 billion for the third quarter, which, if achieved, will be an increase of 23 percent over the corresponding quarter last year. The guidance surpasses second quarter record profits of $7 billion. Third quarter sales are also expected to come in higher than the corresponding period last year by at least 11 percent to $54 billion.
Stocks still down for Samsung
Stock of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) soared by 1 percent after the earnings estimates were presented. However, the marginal rise in stock price could not fade the massive loss of 7 percent that the smartphone maker has suffered since the end of May due to declining smartphone sales.
The Korean major is witnessing downslide in its sales due to the global trend of declining margins and saturation in the smartphone market. The Galaxy series maker can cushion its losses from the smartphone segment through its semiconductors and other technology segment, which is not the case with its rivals.
How are rivals faring?
One of the competitors of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), though not a threat, is BlackBerry, which has been struggling for a long times now and is now looking forward to going private. BlackBerry launched the Z10 followed by other OS10 based phones, but it failed to revive the company. Arch rival of Samsung, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) lost 5 percent of its value since January 1, but has been able to counterbalance some of its losses after launching two new iPhones, the 5S and 5C.
Another rival, Taiwanese-based HTC, suffered lows due to market saturation and stiff competition. It posted a loss of $100 million in the third quarter, which was worse than the analysts’ expectations.
Contrary to HTC, who focused on raking in profit with its high-end phone the HTC One along with signing a 12 million marketing deal with actor Robert Downey Jr, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) worked on getting its mid-range phones such as the Galaxy Golden and S4 Mini to gain the maximum market share in China and India. Memory Cards have also contributed to the profit of Samsung.
