NH Investment & Securities noted on the 6th that NAVER is expected to show stable profit growth in 2025. NH Investment & Securities maintained its investment opinion on NAVER as 'buy' and raised the target price from 250,000 won to 280,000 won, a 12% increase.
An Jae-min, a Research Institute at NH Investment & Securities, explained, “We set the target price considering the upward revision of earnings estimates and the rise in foreign exchange rates, along with the increase in LY and NAVER Webtoon’s corporate value.”
An predicted that NAVER would achieve consolidated revenue of 11.966 trillion won and operating profit of 2.269 trillion won this year. This is 14% higher than last year's operating profit estimate and has been revised upward by about 4% from previous forecasts.
An was most optimistic about the changes in NAVER's e-commerce business. He said, “NAVER will strengthen its logistics competitiveness, which has been lacking compared to its competitor, Coupang, and expand products available for 3-hour delivery, same-day delivery, early morning delivery, holiday delivery, and scheduled delivery.”
He added, “By separating the Plus Store, which can only be used within NAVER, into a separate app, transaction amounts will increase, as well as user dwell time, leading to an increase in advertising revenue.”
An also noted that although Shinsegae Group and Alibaba Group recently joined forces to target the domestic e-commerce market, NAVER is expected to continue improving its performance.
An remarked, “The alliance of Gmarket and AliExpress could intensify competition in the commerce market, but NAVER is expected to achieve growth above the market average through its own competitiveness enhancement.”