Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday its first-quarter operating profit likely rose 10.4 percent from a year earlier, beating market expectations as strong sales of its flagship smartphones appeared to have lifted mobile business earnings, according to Reuters. Samsung, in a regulatory filing, estimated its January-March profit at 6.6 trillion won ($5.7 billion), compared with the 5.6 trillion won tipped by a Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimate derived from a survey of 23 analysts. This marked the highest level since the third quarter of 2015. Samsung also expects its first-quarter revenue to have risen 4 percent from a year earlier to 49 trillion won. The company did not provide details on its trading performance for the period, and will disclose full earnings in late April.
