Samsung Electronics’ first-quarter operating profit surged 52.9 percent from a year ago to 8.7 trillion won thanks to its strong IT and mobile business performance.

Preliminary estimates showed that the tech giant’s sales in the first three months of this year climbed 14.9 percent on-year to 52 trillion won, Samsung said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Samsung did not disclose its earnings by business divisions, but analysts assume that two thirds of the company’s operating profit came from its IT and mobile business.

Samsung Electronics’ smartphone sales in the first quarter gained 11.1 percent from a year ago to around 70 million units, according to IBK Investment and Securities.

Samsung has continued to hold sway over the global smartphone market, with its market share in the first two months of the year standing at 35 percent, compared with 32 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Market watchers expect the company’s latest flagship device Galaxy S4 to further boost its earnings in the second quarter.

Samsung Electronics last month unveiled in New York the fourth series of its Galaxy smartphone line-up, which will go on sale starting this month.

“Because Samsung dominates both high-end and mid-tier smartphone markets, it will continue to hold an advantage over Apple,” said Song Jong-ho, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.

“Samsung’s stock price will take an upturn as Galaxy S4 sales begin in April. But lately, foreign investors have been unloading and buying Samsung stocks in a volatile manner, and this has to stabilize in order for the shares to rise steadily.”

Despite reports that Samsung’s biggest rival Apple Inc. is working on new iPhones that may be launched in the summer, analysts said the Korean tech giant may earn time to defend its dominance with the Galaxy S4 head start.

Analysts conjecture that Samsung’s semiconductor business also picked up from a year earlier as the price of memory chips rose.

The price of its main product DDR3 2Gb 256Mx8 1333MHz soared over 50 percent so far this year.

The company posted over 50 trillion won in sales for three quarters in a row. Its operating profit also exceeded 8 trillion won for three consecutive quarters.

Considering that Samsung set aside money to pay some $599.5 million in damages to Apple for patent infringement following a U.S. court order last month, Samsung’s actual earnings are believed to be larger compared to the last three months of 2012.

Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, however, its sales and operating profit slid 7.24 percent and 1.58 percent, respectively.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)