[Click eStock] "HYBE, Strong Q2 Earnings... Target Price Down 36%"

IBK Investment & Securities Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] IBK Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating on HYBE on the 4th and lowered the target price by 36% to 240,000 KRW. This reflects a downward revision of the annual earnings estimates due to the absence of BTS.

In the second quarter, HYBE's consolidated revenue reached 512.2 billion KRW, an 84% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit recorded 88.3 billion KRW, growing 215.3%. With active activities from flagship artist IPs including BTS, and strong offline activities such as BTS's Las Vegas concert and SEVENTEEN's Japan fan meeting, along with robust sales of related MD products, the company achieved its highest-ever performance. Benefiting from a favorable exchange rate, the company's net profit reached 93 billion KRW.

Regarding album sales of artist IPs in the second quarter, BTS sold 3.6 million copies, SEVENTEEN 2.6 million, and TXT 1.8 million, totaling 8.5 million copies. Enhypen, who released a new album last month, also achieved first-week sales of 1.4 million copies, making a total of four million-seller IP groups. Recently debuted girl group LE SSERAFIM recorded sales exceeding 400,000 copies, and NewJeans' pre-sales surpassed 400,000 copies.

The third quarter is expected to see a gap in new album releases. Researcher Hwanwook Lee of IBK Investment & Securities explained, "Album sales around 4 million copies are possible," adding, "World tour schedules of SEVENTEEN (27 shows), TXT (20 shows), and Enhypen (14 shows) will partially offset the album gap."

Indirect participation-type earnings related to Weverse are expected to continue rising. The company plans to continuously expand the supply of popular MD products with various concepts and IP-related content. The researcher said, "The cumulative number of subscribers to In the SOOP with BTS has reached 6 million and is progressing smoothly," and added, "The NFT business will officially start product sales with the platform launch in the fourth quarter."

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