Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s biggest maker of semiconductors, flat screens and mobile phones, posted fourth-quarter operating profit of about 3.7 trillion won ($3.3 billion), compared with a loss a year earlier.

The preliminary results, plus or minus 200 billion won, compares with a loss of 740 billion won a year earlier, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. Samsung was projected to post a profit of 3.67 trillion won in the quarter, according to the median estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Samsung shares climbed 77 percent last year as prices of memory-chips tripled on demand for personal computers, and income from the sale of mobile phones and televisions surged. Analyst expectations that continuing sales growth will help the company post record profit this year helped boost Samsung shares.

“A recovery in chip earnings together with continued profit growth for handsets and televisions will help Samsung post record profit this year,” Jin Sung Hae, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp., wrote in a report Jan. 6. Macquarie Group Ltd. and CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets have raised their share price estimates on Samsung this week, citing higher earnings prospects.

Samsung shares fell 1.3 percent, the most in three weeks, to 830,000 won at 9:25 a.m. in Seoul trading, compared to a 0.5 percent decline in the benchmark Kospi index.

Consolidated Results

The preliminary figures disclosed today are consolidated, meaning they include earnings from overseas affiliates. Revenue was between 38 trillion won and 40 trillion won, Samsung said. The company began providing quarterly guidance in July.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of computer-memory chips, said in October demand will increase in 2010, prompting the company to boost capital spending plans on semiconductors to more than 5.5 trillion won this year, compared with 4 trillion won in 2009.

Global PC demand will increase 16.4 percent in 2010 and each computer will be equipped with more memory on average as systems increasingly adopt Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system, according to Chung Chang Won, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc., last month.

Source:Bloomberg