"2x in 10 Months"… Naver Stock's Unstoppable Momentum

[Asia Economy Reporter Koh Hyung-kwang] NAVER's stock price surge shows no signs of slowing down. Recognized as the biggest beneficiary of the untact (contactless) trend, it has been hitting record highs day after day. It has nearly doubled in the past 10 months. Experts predict that NAVER's market dominance will further strengthen due to the expansion of contactless consumption amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 10th, NAVER closed at 214,000 KRW on the KOSPI market on the 8th, the previous trading day. Although it fell 0.7% compared to the previous day, it had risen for three consecutive trading days from the 4th to the 7th, continuously setting new all-time highs.

NAVER hit its yearly low of 109,000 KRW on June 18 last year and has since repeatedly risen without significant corrections, surging nearly 2 times (96.3%) in 10 months. Its market capitalization also ranked 4th in the KOSPI market at 35.1523 trillion KRW as of the closing price on the 8th. Since the second half of last year, institutional investors have driven the stock price up by purchasing stocks worth over 700 billion KRW.

This strong performance is because NAVER's all business divisions have shown balanced growth amid concerns over the real economy due to the spread of COVID-19. NAVER recorded 1.7321 trillion KRW in sales in the first quarter, a 14.6% increase compared to the same period last year, and operating profit rose 33.8% to 253.9 billion KRW.

Jo Yong-sun, a researcher at SK Securities, explained, "Although the growth rate of the advertising division in the first quarter was lower than expected, the business platform grew due to the structural increase in e-commerce transaction volume, and the IT platform grew thanks to the advances of NAVER Pay and cloud services, demonstrating superior profit defense compared to other industries."

NAVER's future stock price outlook is also positive. The securities industry has raised NAVER's target price to between 220,000 and 280,000 KRW. This is because it is expected to benefit from the untact era brought about by the spread of COVID-19. Recently, the number of new buyers on NAVER Shopping has surged, and the number of NAVER Pay users aged 50 and above increased by 53% compared to last year. This can be seen as a tangible indicator that the spread of untact culture is positively impacting NAVER's business. Kim So-hye, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, "Regardless of improvements in market investment sentiment, NAVER's corporate value will continue to rise as it is recognized as a beneficiary of the untact era."

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