[Click eStock] "Samba, Customer Growth Regardless of Market Conditions... Target Price 1.1 Million Won"

Hanyang Securities maintained a target price of 1.1 million KRW and a buy rating for Samsung Biologics.

Samsung Biologics recorded consolidated sales of 1.0735 trillion KRW and an operating profit of 350 billion KRW in the fourth quarter of last year, once again exceeding consensus estimates. Since June last year, the company began operating an additional 180,000-liter facility at its Plant 4, which appears to be contributing to sales faster than the market expected. While competitors Lonza and Wuxi Biologics have continuously lowered their earnings guidance, Samsung Biologics raised its earnings guidance three times. Oh Byung-yong, an analyst at Hanyang Securities, said, "The continuous increase in customers regardless of market conditions demonstrates the company's overwhelming production efficiency."

For this year, consolidated sales are expected to reach 4.3229 trillion KRW, with an operating profit of 1.3017 trillion KRW. Analyst Oh stated, "Although the earnings announcement included a sales growth guidance of 10-15% for this year, this guidance is considered very conservative given that sales from Plant 4 will be fully added." Typically, the contract manufacturing process involves transferring production technology from the client, conducting trial production, producing batches for regulatory approval, and then producing commercial volumes after regulatory agency approval. This process takes about 1 to 1.5 years. For Plant 4, only the 60,000-liter facility was partially operated in October 2022, and the remaining 180,000-liter facility began operation in June 2023. Commercial production from Plant 4 will effectively start in the second half of this year. Analyst Oh added, "We expect steady high growth this year as well, and the guidance is likely to be revised upward." However, due to new hiring in preparation for Plant 5 and the forecasted weak dollar, the operating profit margin is expected to remain at last year's level.

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