[Special Stock] KakaoBank, Has It Fallen Too Much So Far? Surges Over 7% on Surprise Earnings

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] KakaoBank is surging over 7% in early trading following an earnings surprise.

As of 9:47 a.m. on the 4th, KakaoBank is trading at 20,135 KRW, up 7.56% from the previous trading day. During the session, KakaoBank's stock price rose as much as 9.82% to 21,800 KRW before giving up some of the gains.

KakaoBank reported Q3 revenue of 411.8 billion KRW and operating profit of 104.6 billion KRW, representing increases of 48.5% and 46.9% respectively compared to the same period last year. Net profit was 78.7 billion KRW, up 51.3% year-over-year. Revenue, operating profit, and net profit all reached record highs on a quarterly basis.

However, despite the surprise strong earnings, the securities industry is lowering expectations. This is due to the overall slowdown in household loan growth across the banking sector amid rising interest rates, and lingering doubts about KakaoBank’s future growth pace.

Hana Securities lowered KakaoBank’s target price from 33,000 KRW to 26,000 KRW, Daishin Securities from 52,000 KRW to 27,000 KRW, Hanwha Investment & Securities from 30,000 KRW to 20,000 KRW, and KB Securities cut its target price by 33.3% from 36,000 KRW to 24,000 KRW.

Researcher Eun Kyung-wan of Shinhan Investment Corp. said, "With the stock price having fallen about 81% from its peak, the strong earnings announcement acted as a trigger for the stock price to rise. However, the company’s emphasized initiatives such as launching banking services for individual business owners, authentication business, and virtual asset exchange-linked services face limitations in serving as factors for stock price revaluation given the current market sentiment, making it premature to discuss a sustained stock price increase."

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