Seoul, April 30
Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday its first-quarter net profit rose more than 20 percent from a year earlier, driven by strong sales of its new Galaxy S series smartphones, but its flagship semiconductor business remained sluggish.
In a regulatory filing, the company posted a net income of 8.22 trillion won ($5.7 billion) for the January-March period, up 21.7 percent from 6.75 trillion won a year earlier.
The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 5.17 trillion won, according to a survey by News Agency.
Operating profit stood at 6.68 trillion won, up 1.2 percent from a year ago, while revenue rose 10 percent to 79.14 trillion won, marking an all-time quarterly high.
Samsung Electronics attributed the larger-than-expected bottom line to robust sales of the smartphone business. Its latest Galaxy S25 smartphones debuted in January.
Its DX division, which includes mobile, TV and home appliances businesses, saw its sales jump 28 percent on-year to 51.7 trillion won, with 4.7 trillion won in operating profit.
In particular, the mobile business alone posted 37 trillion won in sales and 4.3 trillion won in operating profit.
However, sales of the company's chip division sank 17 percent to 25.1 trillion won, with 1.1 trillion won in operating profit, due to its lackluster performance in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) sector.
Samsung Electronics said its earnings could improve in the second half of 2025 if global economic uncertainties ease.