Samsung third-quarter earnings: strong semiconductor sales

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Samsung Electronics  logo is displayed in a window at the company’s Seocho office building in Seoul, South Korea.

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday said it recorded an operating profit of 17.57 trillion won (about $15.5 billion) for the quarter ending in September. That was in line with guidance and represented a jump of around 21 percent from a year earlier.

The world’s largest smartphone maker said its consolidated quarterly revenue came in at 65.46 trillion, which was a 5.5 percent increase from a year ago.

Samsung said its results were driven by strong sales and improving production yield in its memory products, which are used in smartphones and data centers, as well as higher demand for high-end organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels from major customers.

Shares were up 0.94 percent in morning trade, outpacing the main Kospi index in South Korea.

Despite the jump in profits, Samsung said its mobile business saw a drop in earnings — even with solid sales of the flagship Galaxy smartphones.