[THE INVESTOR] Local brokerage firms have raised their forecasts of Samsung Electronics' operating profit to exceed 30 trillion won ($26.88 billion) this year after the tech giant announced a better-than-expected earnings guidance for the third quarter, according to brokerages on Oct. 9. 

Despite a damaging recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, Samsung said on Oct. 7 that it expects to report a 5.5 percent rise in its third quarter operating profit to stand at 7.8 trillion won. Revenue, however, was down 5.19 percent to 49 trillion won. 

After the announcement, Samsung Securities lifted its projection for the tech giant’s 2016 operating profit to 30.6 trillion won from an earlier 29.2 trillion won. 




Hyundai Securities also raised its forecast for Samsung’s operating profit to 30.1 trillion won from 29.5 trillion won. 

NH Investment & Securities is planning to raise its forecast for Samsung’s 2016 operating profit to over 30 trillion won. 

“The market had expected Samsung to post an operating profit of 7.4 trillion won for the third quarter, but the guidance beat estimates by about 400 billion won,” said Le Se-cheol, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. 

The brokerages predicted Samsung’s revenue for this year to exceed 200 trillion won.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)