Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. saw its share price jump 5 percent early Wednesday in South Korea after posting a record-breaking fourth-quarter operating profit of 15.2 trillion won ($14.15 billion).

That’s up 64 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Samsung also said its revenue rose 24 percent, to 66 trillion won, in line with its earnings guidance published earlier thus month. For the full year, Samsung said it pulled in an operating profit of almost 54 trillion won on revenues of 240 trillion won.

The quarterly results were slightly lower than Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, however. A poll by Bloomberg earlier this month showed that analysts were expecting an operating profit of 16.1 trillion won on 67.6 trillion won in revenue. But that didn’t appear to worry investors.

The company said earnings in the last quarter were driven by the ongoing demand for its memory chips in mobile phones and computer servers. Samsung’s semiconductor business has been its outstanding performer this year, recording an operating profit of 11 trillion won in the quarter.

Samsung’s memory chip business has been so successful that Gartner Inc. recently said it has overtaken Intel Corp. to become the world’s No. 1 supplier of semiconductor chips. According to Gartner, Samsung commands a 14.6 percent share of the market, compared with Intel’s 13.8 percent.

The company’s mobile business unit was less successful in the fourth quarter, with earnings declining year-on-year because of increased marketing costs. Samsung said its mobile operating profits came in at 2.42 trillion won, down slightly from a year ago.

The Korean giant placed some of the blame for its declining profits on reduced demand for its low-end smartphone models. The company noticeably lost its position as the leader in India’s smartphone market, where many of its low-end handsets are sold.

Samsung also reiterated what it said in its earnings guidance released earlier this month, saying that its operating profits were impacted by a stronger Korean won versus the U.S. dollar and other major currencies, plus a one-off incentive payment made to employees of its semiconductor business.

For the upcoming quarter ending March 31, Samsung said it expects weak seasonal demand to be offset by the ongoing appetite among data center companies for its memory chips. The company also said the launch of new mobile devices such as its upcoming Galaxy S9 model should help boost its earnings.

Image: Samsung