Samsung shares reversed early gains to fall as much as 6.6% in Seoul, closing down 4.1%, after the company deferred final details on its 2026 shareholder return plan until a board meeting in late January 2027. While Samsung declared a third quarter cash dividend of 30 trillion won ($22.5B), or 4,601 won per share, and said the remaining 55 trillion to 75 trillion won of its 90 trillion to 110 trillion won annual return target will include share buybacks and cancellations, the lack of an immediate repurchase schedule weighed on the stock alongside earnings misses.
On its earnings call, memory executive Jaejune Kim said Samsung’s entire planned high bandwidth memory supply for 2027 is already sold out at its target price levels, after third quarter HBM4 sales more than tripled from the prior quarter to reach 60% of total HBM revenue. Samsung has signed multiyear memory supply contracts with 10 major customers and is negotiating with 10 more, aiming to lock 60% to 70% of its capacity into multiyear deals by 2030. The company said “surging AI-driven demand” will tighten supply shortages further in 2027 than in 2026, with constraints lasting into 2028 even as it lifts 2026 capital spending by 60% to 84.4 trillion won ($63.2B), including 76.8 trillion won for semiconductors.
The guidance followed third quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($80.4B) on revenue of 195.3 trillion won ($146.1B), making Samsung the first technology company to top 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit, though both figures and net income of 75.21 trillion won ($56.2B) fell short of consensus estimates. A weaker dollar and euro reduced operating profit by about 10 trillion won from the second quarter, while a 9.5 trillion won net finance loss weighed on the bottom line. Semiconductors generated 106.5 trillion won of operating profit on 147.1 trillion won in sales for a 72% margin as DRAM and NAND average selling prices rose about 20% and in the high teens from the prior quarter, whereas the phone, TV and appliance division lost 0.8 trillion won due to rising component costs.