Samsung Electronics on Tuesday posted a strong quarterly profit on growing demand for memory chips and displays. The tech giant in a regulatory filing said that its operating profit increased 11.5 % quarter-on-quarter to 5.9 trillion won ($5.44 billion) in the January-March period. The profit represented a 30.5% drop from a year earlier.

The first-quarterly operating profit of the company was far above the median market forecast of 5.47 trillion won among South Korea's 21 brokerage houses.

Total sales at Samsung were estimated to be at 47 trillion won from the period of January to March. Sales were 12.44% less from a year earlier and were down 10.87% from the previous three-month period.

The tech giant did not reveal its net profit estimate or a breakdown of sector performances for last quarter. The final first-quarter result will be released later this month, said sources.

Analysts said that despite drop in first-quarter operating profit, the result is significant as it implies that Samsung Electronics may have entered a recovery phase.

They also expect that Samsung's mobile business might have slightly rebounded as the average sales price of handsets improved while the firm also reduced marketing costs.

Samsung's mainstay IT and mobile business has improved the operating profit by 2 trillion won or higher. The estimate is slightly up from the 1.96 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2014.