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Shares of Samsung Electronics fell Thursday on investor disappointment over a lack of details on shareholder returns, even as the world’s largest memory chip maker announced a bullish outlook.
The South Korean company said it expects AI-related capital spending to reach a “historic high” in 2027, with AI-related demand far outpacing the industry’s supply compared to this year.
Despite the upbeat outlook, Samsung shares fell as much as 6 percent in Seoul, bringing last month’s decline to around 16 percent.
The company only announced a 30 trillion won ($22 billion) dividend plan for the third quarter and said it would provide details on share repurchases and dividends at the end of January.
Rival chipmaker SK Hynix announced a 100 trillion won ($75 billion) shareholder return program on Wednesday as it posted better-than-expected quarterly profits and also gave an upbeat outlook on memory demand.
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Samsung investors were disappointed as they expected details of shareholder returns to be given on Thursday, said Albert Yong, managing partner of Seoul-based Petra Capital Management.
Operating profit at Samsung’s chip division rose more than 15 times year-on-year to 106.5 billion won ($79.7 billion) in the July-September quarter, but remained below analysts’ estimates. The company’s net profit increased more than sixfold to 75.1 billion won ($56.1 billion).
Samsung increased its spending plans for this year by about 60 percent to 84.4 billion won ($63 billion) and said it expected to deliver another year of record profits in 2027.
It has signed long-term supply agreements with 10 major customers and is in talks with 10 others for multi-year contracts, with long-term agreements expected to represent up to 70% of its chip capacity by 2030.
Investor uncertainty over the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on AI infrastructure has weighed on stock prices in recent months.
Samsung and SK Hynix alone account for about half of the Kospi index, which fell nearly 3 percent on Thursday and nearly 13 percent over the past month. Hynix shares rose about 1 percent but lost 15 percent over the past month.
The 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratios of both companies stood at just 3-4 times, which Yong said showed “they are in absolutely undervalued territory.”
He added: “Investor concerns about the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending have eased somewhat globally. However, Samsung’s share price performance suggests that investors have returned to viewing memory chips as a cyclical business.”
Gn bussni
