Samsung Earnings Beat Expectations on Strong Phone Sales

Samsung reported that it earned an operating profit of $4.77 billion on revenues of $52 billion in the quarter ending March 31, well above expectations. The firm credited strong sales of the flagship Galaxy S24 smartphones and higher memory prices for its 13 percent year-over-year (YOY) revenue jump.

Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) business is responsible for its smartphones, and it scored an operating profit of $2.53 billion on revenues of $24 billion. Both grew thanks to the previously noted flagship Galaxy devices, and Samsung says that Galaxy AI features like Circle to Search contributed to sales growth and continue to see high usage rates.

Looking to the next quarter, Samsung will bring Galaxy AI to more flagship phones—presumably coming foldables—and will continue investing in AI and other R&D. The firm expects the smartphone market to rebound in the second half of 2024 “due to stabilizing consumer sentiment, the expansion of AI products and services, and economic growth in emerging markets.”

Samsung’s Device Solutions division delivered an operating profit of $1.3 billion on revenues of $16.7 billion as its Memory business returned to profitability after a rough previous year, and strong demand across servers, storage, PC, and mobile. Samsung Display added another $5.39 billion in revenues, with Visual Display and Digital Appliances coming in at $9.7 billion.