POSCO, Steep Earnings Improvement Expected... Target Price Raised by 46%

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] Kyobo Securities maintained a 'Buy' rating on POSCO on the 20th, expecting a sharp improvement in performance this year, and raised the target price by 45.8% from the previous 240,000 KRW to 350,000 KRW.

Researcher Kwang-je Baek of Kyobo Securities evaluated, "The recent stock price has shown a sharp rise due to better-than-expected performance improvement in the second half of last year, recovery of the Chinese economy, favorable conditions in the upstream industries, and recent price increases."

He also analyzed that there is sufficient room for further upward revision of the target price depending on the degree of confirmed performance improvement in the future. Above all, he judged that the current time is when efforts should be made to buy at the bottom.

He forecasted that this year's consolidated sales will reach 60.7 trillion KRW, up 5.1% from the previous year, and operating profit will increase by 74.3% to 4.2 trillion KRW. He stated that this year's performance is expected to achieve a large-scale turnaround, supported by strong steel prices due to recent economic recovery expectations, demand recovery prospects, and product price increases.

Researcher Baek emphasized, "With global improvements expected as the impact of COVID-19 subsides, visible demand improvements in upstream industries such as automobiles, construction, and shipbuilding, and the internalization of fixed cost reduction structures implemented during crises, performance improvement is expected across all operating sectors."

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