[Click eStock] "Pearl Abyss Needs New Title Momentum... 'Target Price Downgrade'"

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Hanwha Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating on Pearl Abyss on the 16th, citing a decline in mobile sales, and lowered the target price by 8% to 230,000 KRW.

Pearl Abyss recorded Q4 sales of 119.6 billion KRW and operating profit of 39.1 billion KRW. The operating profit fell short of market expectations by about 12%.

Mobile sales decreased by 14% quarter-on-quarter due to continued sales decline in domestic and Japanese markets. PC sales remained at the previous quarter's level due to the Black Desert global update. Console sales decreased by 15% quarter-on-quarter due to changes in accounting recognition standards.

So-hye Kim, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, "The console sales ratio in Q4 expanded to 17% as the seasonal peak and the PS4 launch effect were fully reflected," adding, "Despite an increase in advertising expenses quarter-on-quarter due to global new releases and G-Star related costs, operating profit margin improved by 3.3 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 32.7% thanks to a significant decrease in commission fees."

Although Black Desert M's sales in domestic and Japanese markets are sluggish, global sales are expected to be fully reflected in Q1. Also, Black Desert PC appears to maintain a stable trend without sales decline.

Researcher Kim said, "The effect of the new Guardian character update in December will continue into the first half of the year," and explained, "Shadow Arena will be released in Q2, and EVE Echoes will be launched in the second half."

The three new projects (Plan 8, Dokkaebi, Red Desert) are expected to have their CBT schedules and future plans detailed at E3 in June.

She added, "The target price is lowered reflecting the downward trend in mobile game sales," and stated, "Considering the multi-platform development capability expanded to PC, mobile, and console, it is judged to be in an undervalued range."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.