Samsung Shares Fall More Than 4% Despite Record Quarterly Profit of 107.4 Trillion Won
Key Facts
Samsung shares fell more than 4% in trading on October 29 after the company reported record operating profit of 107.4 trillion won and record quarterly revenue of 195.3 trillion won. The decline pulled the KOSPI down 2.6%, after it rose about 7% in the previous session, according to Reuters via Investing.com. The drop came as Samsung said demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems supported its record results. The company posted a fourth consecutive quarter of record profit and revenue, according to the Associated Press. The results highlight the widening gap between strong operating performance and the question left open for investors: how the company will distribute most of its estimated shareholder returns for the year.
Consolidated revenue was 195.3 trillion won in the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, while operating profit reached 107.4 trillion won. Alongside those results, Samsung announced a third-quarter cash dividend totaling 30 trillion won. The payout amounts to 4,601 won per common share and 4,601 won per preferred share, according to a company statement. Investors are therefore waiting not because the quarter has no cash dividend, but because the fate of the remaining funds under the annual shareholder-return program is unclear. Samsung estimated total shareholder returns for 2026 at between 90 trillion and 110 trillion won, and said 35 trillion won was planned or had already been paid.
The estimated funds remaining under the shareholder-return program range from 55 trillion to 75 trillion won, according to Samsung's calculation after accounting for amounts planned or already paid. The company has yet to set its next shareholder-return policy, the final amount or a plan for using this balance. It said the board will approve these items at a meeting scheduled for late January 2027, with details to be announced afterward. The program is part of Samsung's 2024–2026 commitment to allocate 50% of free cash flow to shareholder returns. That framework puts the January decision at the center of investors' focus, as it will determine how the estimated balance is distributed among the different return options.
Samsung is also facing substantial capital spending to support its expansion in chips. The company forecast capital expenditure of about 84.4 trillion won in 2026, including 76.8 trillion won allocated to its Device Solutions division. In results for the same quarter, SK hynix reported revenue of 104.6155 trillion won, operating profit of 83.3338 trillion won and net profit of 39.7756 trillion won. These figures show the scale of competition between the two South Korean memory-chip makers in a market supported by artificial intelligence applications. Balancing investment in production capacity with returning cash to shareholders is also part of each company's financial picture.
SK hynix, for its part, announced a third-quarter cash dividend of 14 trillion won, along with a 20 trillion won share buyback approved by the board on October 28. Of the amount allocated to the buyback, 10 trillion won will go toward shareholder returns, and all repurchased shares will be canceled. The company's shares rose 8.20% in trading on October 28 after it announced shareholder returns of about $75 billion, according to Reuters. By contrast, data from the same session showed both Samsung and SK hynix shares rising; those data do not establish that investors moved from one to the other. Samsung forecast that demand for its artificial intelligence-related chips will continue to accelerate through 2027 as customers expand infrastructure in the sector.