[Featured Stock] Krafton Hits 52-Week Low Amid Q3 Earnings Slump Forecast

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Krafton is experiencing a drop of over 5% during trading hours. This reflects the market's anticipation that the third-quarter earnings will not meet expectations.

At 10:01 AM on the 11th, Krafton was down 5.74%, trading at 180,500 KRW. The stock price plunged to as low as 178,000 KRW during the session, marking a 52-week low.

Daishin Securities forecasted disappointing third-quarter results for Krafton. The estimated third-quarter revenue and operating profit are 431.9 billion KRW and 159 billion KRW, respectively, which are 17% and 19% lower compared to the same period last year.

The decline in performance is attributed to the sluggish mobile segment, which accounts for a large portion of sales. It is predicted that the company did not benefit from the peak season effect due to the shrinking Chinese mobile game market. Ji-eun Lee, a researcher at Daishin Securities, explained, “Due to increased marketing expenses related to content updates and new releases, both third-quarter revenue and operating profit are expected to be similar to the off-season second quarter.” She added, “The new release, The Callisto Protocol (TCP), is a console game, and unlike mobile games that generate steady revenue after launch, it is likely to generate only short-term initial sales.”

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