KB Securities assessed on the 27th that Samsung Electronics must regain its technological competitiveness for its stock price to rebound. KB Securities maintained its investment opinion of "buy" on Samsung Electronics but lowered the target price from 80,000 won to 70,000 won, a decrease of 12.5%.
Kim Dong-won, a Research Institute analyst at KB Securities, assessed that Samsung Electronics' stock price must meet three conditions to rise: ▲ Restoration of technological competitiveness in leading-edge processes ▲ Expansion of supply for 12-layer fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM3E) and early entry into the sixth-generation HBM (HBM4) market ▲ Improvement in system LSI performance due to the recovery of foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) utilization.
Kim noted that if Samsung Electronics fails to achieve such results based on technological competitiveness, the stock price may remain within a range. He said, "As the cycle of general-purpose memory semiconductors slows, Samsung Electronics' performance improvement is expected to be delayed."
Kim projected Samsung Electronics' operating profit for 2025 at 36.1 trillion won, a downward adjustment of 16.5% from previous estimates. He noted, "As the prices of general-purpose memory semiconductors decline due to sluggish smartphone and PC demand, the expansion of memory production capacity by China's Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) will act as a future factor disrupting semiconductor prices."
Kim also stated, "The speed of Samsung Electronics expanding its market share related to HBM3E, which will account for 89% of the HBM market in 2025, may slow due to competitors entering the market early," and added, "As competition in the prices of small and medium organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) intensifies, the improvement in display performance is also expected to slow."