Samsung Electronics projects 107.4 trillion won (about $80 billion) in third-quarter operating profit. This would mark the first time any technology company tops 100 trillion won in a quarter.

Operating profit, the money made from core business before interest and taxes, rose 782.5% from a year earlier. Yet Goldman Sachs holds a 490,000 won price target, about 87% above Thursday’s close.

Samsung Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance

What Drove Samsung’s Record Profit

Memory chips, which store data in phones and artificial intelligence (AI) servers, did the heavy lifting. AI data centers are buying them faster than manufacturers can make them, pushing prices higher.

Analysts estimate memory earned about 110 trillion won, The Korea Times reported. Samsung’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) shipments, stacked chips that feed AI processors, grew close to 50% from the second quarter.

Samsung AI Memory Boom

“Here’s another remarkable number from the AI boom…The reason? Soaring demand for MEMORY chips used in AI infrastructure. AI infrastructure spending is creating enormous profits for chip suppliers while raising costs for other industries,” macro strategist Jerry Robinson noted.

However, phones paid the price, with analysts telling Reuters the mobile business lost more than $1 billion as chip costs rose. Reportedly, Samsung will break down results by business on October 29.

Where Analysts Expect Samsung Stock Price to Go

Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Oh had warned of volatility on October. 8, Hankyung reported. Chip fund rebalancing, options expiry, and the end of Samsung’s 15 trillion won buyback all landed that day.

Foreign investors sold a net 348.5 billion won of the stock, while institutions sold 647.7 billion won, The Korea Times reported. BeInCrypto’s Samsung Q3 earnings preview flagged a similar drop after July’s record quarter.

Still, most targets sit far above the current price. Goldman reiterated a buy rating and its 490,000 won target on September 18. Korea Investment & Securities sits highest at 650,000 won.

BNK Investment & Securities is the outlier. It holds a 270,000 won target and a hold rating, citing aggressive capacity expansion across the industry.

Growth is also slowing. Analysts expect fourth-quarter profit to rise 8.2% from the third, down from 20% this quarter. Samsung and Micron expect the chip shortage to last into 2028.

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