[Click eStock] "SK Hynix, a period of strengthening fundamentals... Target price lowered"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Securities evaluated SK Hynix on the 21st as being in a phase of strengthening fundamentals rather than focusing on capital investment and market share expansion. Accordingly, they maintained a 'Buy' investment rating but lowered the target price to 130,000 KRW.

Kim Young-woo, a researcher at SK Securities, stated, "Second-quarter sales are expected to be 14.6 trillion KRW, a 41.4% increase year-on-year, and operating profit is projected at 3.52 trillion KRW, up 29.2%, indicating solid performance."

Researcher Kim explained, "While the operating profit contribution from the DRAM segment remains absolute, the competitiveness of the NAND segment is continuously improving. Mass production of HMB3 started the fastest in the industry, and it has been recognized for its excellent performance after beginning supply to NVIDIA."

Kim also anticipated that regarding the market's concerns about increased capital investment to expand DRAM and NAND market shares, "Considering the shortage of semiconductor wafers and rare gases, capital investment in facilities is expected to be less aggressive compared to infrastructure investment."

Looking at each segment, he explained, "It is inevitable to revise down the demand forecast for DDR5 because Intel's launch of 'Sapphire Rapids,' the first server CPU supporting DDR5, has been delayed."

Demand for mobile DRAM and NAND is also being impacted. Researcher Kim assessed, "Sales of Chinese smartphone manufacturers, who hold overwhelming market shares in the Chinese and Eastern European markets, have deteriorated, which is somewhat negative for memory price forecasts in the second half."

Regarding the U.S. subsidiary Solidigm, he evaluated, "Since sales are mainly focused on enterprise storage devices (Enterprise SSD), it will be difficult for performance to improve significantly in the second half. Non-memory (CIS) has also yet to show clear growth momentum."

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