Samsung Posts 107.4 Trillion Won Quarter; 100 Trillion Return Race Begins

By Priya Raman

Samsung Electronics reported 107.4 trillion won in quarterly operating profit, up 783% year over year. It is the first technology company to post more than 100 trillion won in a single quarter. The figure landed on 195.3 trillion won of revenue.

The semiconductor division contributed 106.5 trillion won of that profit. Samsung said HBM4 (high-bandwidth memory, the stacked chip used in AI accelerators) sales more than tripled from the prior quarter. Its 2027 HBM output is already sold out.

Who returns more cash to shareholders?

The answer is not settled. SK hynix reported first, on the 28th, with 83.33 trillion won in operating profit, up 557%, on 104.62 trillion won of revenue — its first quarter above 100 trillion. Its margin approached 80%. The company committed to returning more than 100 trillion won to shareholders in 2026: over 30 trillion in cash dividends and more than 60 trillion in buybacks and cancellations.

Samsung countered the next day with a plan worth up to 110 trillion won. Only the 30 trillion won third-quarter cash dividend is locked. The remaining 55 to 75 trillion, a mix of dividends and buybacks, waits for the late-January board meeting. That decision is the next hard catalyst.

SK hynix management said on its call that DRAM and HBM capacity is sold out through 2029. Both companies hold long-term AI memory contracts. Samsung also holds a cash pile of 214.8 trillion won, roughly 197.6 trillion net. The caveat: its phone and device business absorbs the same higher memory prices that feed the chip division.

What did the market do?

On the 11th, Samsung closed near 206,000 KRW, up just over 3%. SK hynix rose more than 5%. Foreign investors flipped to net buyers at plus 484 billion won, while retail kept selling.

The foreign buying follows a long exit. Foreign ownership of Samsung has fallen to about 46%, the lowest since the financial crisis years. Institutions sold heavily on the way down from the 374,500 KRW high. The National Pension Service (NPS, South Korea's state fund) took a large mark-to-market loss during that drawdown.

The register still skews internal. Samsung Life and affiliates hold 19.69%. NPS holds 7.84%. BlackRock holds about 5%.

Is the valuation the whole story?

Samsung trades at a forward P/E of 2.79 and a trailing P/E near 6.3. The street average target sits at 475,629 KRW. Those multiples are only cheap if the memory cycle holds, and cycle peaks have punished buyers before.

Technically, the stock bounced off the 196,000 to 204,000 KRW zone. First resistance sits at 277,000, roughly 35% above the close. The stock is a coin with two faces: record profits and record skepticism from foreign desks that already sold.

SK hynix set the tone with its 100 trillion return plan. Samsung confirmed the same story a day later. The January board decides how much of it is real.