Poor performance of semiconductor business, Goldman Sachs slashed Samsung Q4 operating profit forecast

CTOnews.com, December 22 (Xinhua)-- Goldman Sachs has slashed Samsung's fourth-quarter operating profit forecast to 5.8 trillion won ($4.5 billion), about 25.6 percent from its previous estimate of 7.8 trillion won.

If the estimates are accurate, Samsung's operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 will be 58.3% lower than that of the fourth quarter of 2021.

The main reason for the downgrade is that Goldman Sachs expects operating profit in Samsung's semiconductor business to fall sharply, with operating profit in Samsung's chip manufacturing business reaching 1.5 trillion won in the fourth quarter. this is 83 per cent lower than the operating profit of the company's semiconductor division in the fourth quarter of last year.

Goldman Sachs explained that it decided to downgrade given the weak performance of the global memory chip industry and the decline in Samsung's shipments of smartphones and televisions. In addition, Samsung's operating profit will fall even more next year due to the downward cycle of the global memory chip market.

CTOnews.com learned that Samsung's semiconductor business has never made an operating profit of less than 2 trillion won since 2009. As a result, Samsung's chip business profit this quarter is expected to hit an all-time low in nearly a decade.