"Seegene, Attractive Valuation... Target Price Up"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Hana Financial Investment raised the target price of Seegene from the previous 34,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW on the 19th, maintaining a 'Buy' investment rating, stating that the company is valued based on earnings.

Sun Minjung, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, "Seegene's sales in the fourth quarter of last year are estimated at 33.7 billion KRW, an 11% increase compared to the previous year, and operating profit is estimated at around 5 billion KRW, similar to the previous year due to a high base."

She explained that this year, sales growth of gastrointestinal infection (GI) diagnostic reagents, which have been growing rapidly since last year, is expected to exceed 20% in the reagent segment. However, in terms of costs, due to changes in the European certification system, additional reagent re-certification costs will occur, and research and development expenses are expected to increase by more than 2 billion KRW compared to the previous year.

However, the proportion of Allplex, which has the highest margin, continued to expand to account for 66% as of the third quarter of last year, and due to a large-scale supply contract with a major European screening center, operating profit margin is analyzed to improve by 5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Researcher Sun Minjung explained, "Last year, the stock price rose by as much as 96.5% as performance improvement became clear from a low point," adding, "Seegene's high growth trend is expected to continue this year as well, with net profit reaching 28.2 billion KRW."

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