[Click eStock] "Cheil Worldwide, Steady Growth Driven by Competitiveness"

On February 3, Samsung Securities raised its target price for Cheil Worldwide to 25,000 won, while maintaining its "Buy" investment rating.

Choi Minha and Kang Younghoon, analysts at Samsung Securities, stated in a report released that day, "We expect Cheil Worldwide to continue expanding its stable performance by strengthening its capabilities in growth businesses." They added, "Considering that one-off non-operating costs such as losses on convertible bond valuation and foreign exchange losses occurred last year, the increase in consolidated net profit is expected to be greater than the increase in operating profit."

In the fourth quarter, gross profit was 485.3 billion won and operating profit was 90.4 billion won, meeting the lowered market expectations. Although personnel investments to strengthen capabilities in areas such as the digital sector continued throughout the year, leading to higher labor costs compared to the same period last year, efficient control of other SG&A expenses improved the operating margin to 18.6% relative to gross profit.

For this year, Cheil Worldwide presented performance guidance of "5% growth in gross profit and maintaining the operating margin at last year's level (18%) compared to gross profit." The company plans to continue expanding its business areas, focusing on performance-measurable, platform-based growth segments, and to accelerate its entry into non-agency marketing, which features a performance-based compensation structure directly linked to advertisers' sales.

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