Older Brother Slows Down... Hyundai Motor Stalls, Kia Motors Speeds Up

Hyundai Motor Stagnates for a Month VS Kia Motors Rises About 14%

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] The fortunes of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motor stocks are diverging. While Hyundai Motor has been stagnant for a month, Kia Motor is showing a rapid upward trend.

As of 11:12 a.m. on the 23rd, Hyundai Motor's stock price recorded 226,000 won, down 1.31% from the previous day. Since reaching 249,000 won on the 24th of last month, it has hardly broken out of the 220,000 to 230,000 won range. Since the 2nd of this month, it has not surpassed the 240,000 won mark even once. This is a level similar to before the stock price surged earlier this year due to the autonomous electric vehicle collaboration with Apple.

Investor sentiment appears to have softened amid forecasts that first-quarter earnings may fall short of expectations. KB Securities projected that Hyundai Motor will achieve consolidated sales of 25.745 trillion won and operating profit of 1.207 trillion won in the first quarter of this year. These figures represent increases of 1.7% and 39.7%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. However, compared to market consensus, these are 5.4% and 21.5% below expectations. KB Securities analyst Seongjin Kang explained, "The recovery in sales volume is not as fast as expected," adding, "Sales in the U.S. were sluggish due to the cold wave, and despite the reduction in individual consumption tax, domestic sales increased more slowly than anticipated."

On the other hand, Kia Motor showed a clear upward trend. While Hyundai Motor remained in a box range and declined slightly over the past month, Kia Motor's stock price rose by about 14%. As of 9:37 a.m. on the same day, it recorded 85,100 won, down 1.16% from the previous day, but it still shows a contrasting upward curve compared to Hyundai Motor.

This is interpreted as reflecting solid earnings and expectations for further gains due to upcoming business structure changes. Hyundai Motor Securities forecast that Kia Motor will achieve consolidated sales of 16.4828 trillion won and operating profit of 1.0394 trillion won in the first quarter of this year. Sales are expected to increase by 13.2% and operating profit by 133.9% compared to the same period last year. Compared to consensus, sales exceed by 3.4%, while operating profit is 2.8% below expectations. The deviation compared to Hyundai Motor is not significant.

Moreover, expectations for business structure reform are growing. Kia Motor recently changed its corporate name to Kia. This is interpreted as a strategic move to expand its business scope from automobiles to overall mobility. Hyunsoo Lee, an analyst at Yuanta Securities, said, "While Hyundai Motor has three business divisions, Kia's business structure was more specialized in automobiles to the extent that it had only one business division for cars," adding, "The business structure changes following the name change could be greater than expected."

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