Technology / Semiconductor / Internet Research

Nicolas Baratte

Nicolas Baratte has been a financial analyst since 2000, covering the Semiconductor sector and Global Technology. Nicolas has worked on the sell-side for JPMorgan, CLSA. On the buy-side for a Tiger fund and Prudential. Nicolas has covered semiconductors, Asian hardware and components, and the Global Tech supply chain. Nicolas lives mostly in Taiwan, sometimes in France and is in New York regularly.

Equity Bottom-Up

Samsung Electronics Pref Shares / Equity Bottom-Up

Samsung Electronics Pref Shares (005935 KS)

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<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/samsung-electronics-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:191:1" rel="noopener">Samsung Electronics (005930 KS)</a> already released 1Q25 data, we knew it was a decent quarter on good Smartphone sales. What we didn’t know is how bad Memory was. </li>
<li>Memory revenues declined sharply -17% QoQ on poor 4.4% OP margins: loss of HBM 2/3 revenues (China ban), no HBM3E, ASP pressure for Commodity DRAM and NAND </li>
<li>Smartphone is seasonally down in 2Q and HBM3E will start very slowly. A small upside possible on pre-tariff demand but the bigger negative remains Samsung low exposure to AI growth.</li>
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Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) already released 1Q25 data, we knew it was a decent quarter on good Smartphone sales. What we didn’t know is how bad Memory was. 
Memory revenues declined sharply -17% QoQ on poor 4.4% OP margins: loss of HBM 2/3 revenues (China ban), no HBM3E, ASP pressure for Commodity DRAM and NAND 
Smartphone is seasonally down in 2Q and HBM3E will start very slowly. A small upside possible on pre-tariff demand but the bigger negative remains Samsung low exposure to AI growth.


Samsung 1Q25: Already Reported Was Decent, 2Q / 2H Outlook Uninspiring. The Stock Will Remain Cheap