[Featured Stock] Naver Hits New 52-Week Low Again (Closing Summary)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Naver (NAVER) closed down over 2%, marking a new 52-week low once again.

On the 13th, in the KOSPI market, Naver closed at 158,500 KRW, down 2.16% from the previous trading day. During the session, Naver fell as much as 4.32% to 155,000 KRW, setting a new 52-week low.

In the securities industry, forecasts suggest that Naver will record earnings below market consensus in the third quarter as well, leading to downward revisions of its target price.

Kyobo Securities projected Naver's operating profit for the third quarter of this year to be 320.1 billion KRW, an 8.5% decrease compared to the same period last year. This is below the market expectation of 349.7 billion KRW. Kyobo Securities maintained a 'Buy' rating on Naver but lowered the target price from 350,000 KRW to 300,000 KRW on the same day.

Researcher Kim Dong-woo of Kyobo Securities analyzed, "Due to the contraction of the advertising market, growth in advertising revenue, a high-margin business unit, is slowing, causing operating profit to decline compared to the same period last year."

Researcher Jung Ho-yoon of Korea Investment & Securities also stated, "In the near term, it is unlikely that the growth rate of Naver's core business units such as advertising and commerce will rebound. In this situation, cost control is necessary to improve margins, but there is still a burden of investment and marketing expenses for the external growth of major new businesses such as webtoons and fintech, making margin recovery difficult and requiring patience."

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