[Click eStock] "NCSoft, Stock Rebound from Q4 with New Game Release"

Hana Financial Investment Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Hana Financial Investment on the 17th issued a buy rating and a target price of 500,000 KRW for NCSoft. This is based on the judgment that among major game stocks, NCSoft has high valuation attractiveness and its stock price will be re-evaluated if new titles are released in the second half of the year.

The revenue base strength of the Lineage series exceeds market expectations. In the first quarter, Lineage M, despite being a 6-year-old game since its release, grew by more than 30% quarter-over-quarter, continuing to outperform market expectations.

Yoon Yeji, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, “Lineage M and 2M maintain daily sales in the low 1 billion KRW range until the release of new titles, supporting earnings. Although Lineage W’s daily sales are expected to decline to the mid-2 billion KRW range in the second quarter, a sales rebound is anticipated in the fourth quarter with the upcoming launch in the Americas and Europe regions combined with NFT.”

Although TL’s exact business model has not yet been disclosed, considering NCSoft’s PC game sales, it is expected to record sales of 60 billion KRW in the fourth quarter.

NCSoft is preparing a total of seven new titles for IP and platform expansion. Except for TL, which is close to release, no information has been disclosed, so earnings are expected to be further upgraded when information about other new titles is revealed.

Researcher Yoon forecasted, “NCSoft will experience a decline in sales in the second and third quarters this year due to the downward stabilization of Lineage W’s sales. However, in the fourth quarter, it will start a rebound with the release of the highly anticipated PC and console MMO TL.”

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