Samsung projects weak third quarter

Plagued by falling memory prices, Korean electronics giant Samsung expects its third fiscal quarter of 2019 to be the fourth straight quarter of a year-to-year revenue decline, according to a blog post on the site of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC).

According to the article, Samsung’s third-quarter revenue is pegged at $51.9 billion, which is up 8% from the previous quarter but down 11% from the year-ago quarter, mainly attributed to falling prices for memory chips. Operating income is slated to $6.4 billion, up 14% from the previous quarter but 60% lower than the year-ago quarter due to lower margins in the semiconductor sector, Samsung was quoted as saying in the blog post. The graph following the article shows Samsung's financials. 

Company-wide operating margins are expected to improve slightly from 11.8% in Q2’19 to 12.4% in Q3’19 as the memory market begins to stabilize, but is below the 27% earned in Q3’18 when semiconductor operating margins were 55%, the article said.

Samsung does have a few bright spots. According to the DSCC article, revenue from OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays are projected to rise 40% sequentially, though they are still down 10% from a year ago. Samsung is banking on growth in flexible and foldable displays to give its OLED business a boost, as sales of those products are expected to jump 85% from the previous quarter.