South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. is forecast to rack up less than 6 trillion won ($5 billion) in operating profit for the first quarter of this year, following worse-than-expected earnings for the final quarter of last year, analysts said Sunday.

The world's top smartphone maker is expected to post an average 5.8 trillion won in operating income for the January-March period, down 4.53 percent from an earlier estimate of 6.1 trillion won, according to a median estimate of 20 local brokerage firms compiled by Seoul-based market tracker FnGuide Inc.

Its sales are projected to reach 47.9 trillion won for the three-month period, also failing to meet an earlier market consensus of 48.3 trillion won.

On its fourth-quarter guidance unveiled last week, Samsung Electronics reported a forecast-missing quarterly profit as sales of smartphones and memory chips remained sluggish.

Samsung said it probably posted an operating profit of 6.1 trillion won in the October-December period, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier but down 17.5 percent from the previous quarter, but the estimate hovered slightly below the market consensus of 6.5 trillion won by 16 South Korean brokerage houses.

Its fourth-quarter sales of 53 trillion won also missed earlier market predictions of 53.6 trillion won.

"We had to revise down the prediction, reflecting the worse-than-expected fourth-quarter performance," said Lee Ga-geun, an analyst from KB Investment & Securities Co.

Market watchers said Samsung will hardly make a breakthrough this year as its core segments of semi-conductor and Internet-mobile divisions will likely remain lackluster due to weak demand at home and abroad in the new year.

"It is going up against an unfavorable business environment, including slowing growth of smartphone shipments and a drop in the profitability of memory chips," said Doh Hyun-woo from Mirae Asset Securities Co. "But Samsung is competitive enough to face it." (Yonhap)