Samsung's Profit Growth Is Coming Back to Earth

Samsung Electronics missed analyst expectations this Friday, when the company pre-announced its second quarter earnings. The Korean company, a market leader in semiconductors and consumer electronics, posted an operating profit of 9.5 trillion Won ($8.3 billion) on sales of approximately 57 trillion Won ($50 billion).

Even though this qualifies as another record quarter for Samsung, investors and analysts were disappointed by the results as they signify a noticeable slowdown of the company's profit growth. Analysts had expected operating profits in excess of 10 trillion Won and blame lackluster demand for high-end smartphones for the target miss. It appears as if Samsung is starting to face the same problem that Apple has suffered from for a while now: having raised the bar so high for themselves, both companies find it increasingly hard to match expectations. Since the beginning of the year, Apple shares have fallen by about 21 percent, while Samsung is down 16 percent.