By Min-Jeong Lee
SEOUL--Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) on Friday said its fourth-quarter profit rose 76% to a record high on strong smartphone sales and higher margins in its chip business.
Samsung said its net profit was 7.04 trillion won, or $6.6 billion, up from 4.01 trillion won in the same period a year earlier. The figure exceeds the record 6.56 trillion won set in the previous quarter.
The result was slightly lower than the average 7.3 trillion won net profit forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of six analysts.
Revenue jumped to 56.1 trillion won, up 18.5% from the year ago period.
Samsung likely remained the largest seller of cellphones and smartphones in the quarter but showed signs of being affected by the same leveling of growth as seen in the results of Apple Inc. a day earlier. Samsung doesn't release details on the number of phones it sells in its earnings reports.
Samsung's growth momentum is faster than Apple's, however, and analysts expect it to stay that way for much of the year due to a larger mix of products.
But its profits through 2013 are likely to be mainly shaped by improvements in its chip business, which saw a healthy jump in profitability the fourth quarter.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires