Samsung Electronics’ first-quarter profits likely fell almost 60 percent from a year ago due to weakness in its display and memory business.
The South Korean tech giant said on Friday its operating profit for the three months ended March would be around 6.2 trillion Korean won ($5.5 billion), a sharp decline from the 15.64 trillion won seen in the first quarter of 2018.
Friday’s number also missed analysts’ estimate of 6.8 trillion won.
Last month, Samsung said in a regulatory filing it predicted a bigger-than-expected price decline for major memory products due to seasonal weakness in demand. Those components are used in mobile handsets and enterprise servers.
For its display business, Samsung had said that LCD panel prices fell more than expected due to an expansion in capacity from Chinese competitors while demand from large-scale buyers of its flexible OLED display screens, which are typically used in high-end smartphones, also declined.
Consolidated sales for the first quarter was expected to be around 52 trillion won, down 14 percent from a year earlier, Samsung said Friday. It also missed market expectations.
In January, the world’s largest smartphone maker had issued a similar warning for the previous quarter’s earnings — operating profit for the three months ended December fell more than 28 percent annually and missed analysts’ predictions by 18 percent.
