Profit of SR944 million ($252 million) in the three months to December missed analysts' forecasts of SR1.12 billion.
"Government spending on infrastructure is filtering through to the banks now in the form of credit growth," said Murad Ansari, Saudi banks equities analyst at EFG Hermes in Riyadh.
"On the revenue side, spreads were much higher than what we were expecting. There were more positives to the results than negatives."
The result marked a fall of 16.8 percent from its SR1.14 billion income in the third quarter, Samba said in a statement it posted on the website of the Saudi bourse.
Total operating profit for the period edged down by 2.9 percent to SR1.51 billion on the year.
Profits from special commissions also fell, to SR4.38 billion from SR4.54 billion the previous year.
Loans and advances at the end of the quarter stood at SR89.1 billion, versus SR80.3 billion a year earlier, it said.
Samba's assets at the end of the period were SR192.8 billion, compared with SR187.4 billion at the end of 2010.
