[Click eStock] "SK Hynix Earnings Surprise... Maximizing Performance in the Second Half of the Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Myung-hwan Lee] Hanwha Investment & Securities announced on the 3rd that it expects SK Hynix's performance to maximize in the second half of this year, maintaining a target stock price of 180,000 KRW and a buy rating.

SK Hynix's fourth-quarter results last year showed sales of 12.4 trillion KRW and operating profit of 4.2 trillion KRW. Hanwha Investment & Securities evaluated this as an excellent performance, exceeding market expectations by 12.6% in terms of operating profit, excluding one-time costs related to employee bonuses and the acquisition of Intel's NAND business.

Hanwha Securities forecasted that SK Hynix's performance would decline in the first quarter of this year due to inventory buildup during the off-season. The company's projected sales and operating profit for the first quarter are 12 trillion KRW and 2.9 trillion KRW, respectively. Researcher Lee Soon-hak of Hanwha Investment & Securities explained, "The reason for the somewhat significant decline in performance is inventory buildup during the seasonal off-season," adding, "Since front-end demand has not deteriorated, the purpose is to defend prices as much as possible during the off-season and to secure inventory to respond to demand from the second quarter onward."

Hanwha Securities analyzed that SK Hynix would pursue a profitability-focused strategy due to the semiconductor supply shortage. The researcher stated, "The global supply shortage is greatly influencing IT companies' strategies," and explained, "Suppliers have no choice but to maintain a conservative capital expenditure policy, and SK Hynix also emphasized a profitability-focused strategy." He further diagnosed, "Since the end of last year, PCs and servers have been performing well, and there are signs that smartphone demand is also reviving recently, which is positive."

He added, "It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that SK Hynix recorded good profitability despite the NAND average selling price being significantly lower than previous estimates."

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