NH Investment & Securities analyzed on the 14th that Kakao could resolve the previously overlooked momentum related to artificial intelligence (AI) through a partnership with OpenAI. The investment opinion remains 'buy,' and the target price has been raised from 49,000 won to 53,000 won. Kakao's previous day's closing price was 43,150 won.
NH Investment & Securities projected that Kakao's operating profit will reach 602.1 billion won this year, up 30.8% from the previous year. An Jae-min, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, noted, 'Kakao is expected to see various changes, including traffic increases and the possibility of introducing a subscription model, through its restructuring and partnership with OpenAI, as well as improvements in performance from its subsidiaries that will begin to show this year.'
In particular, it is anticipated that the performance will improve due to ▲the turnaround of Kakao Pay ▲the growth of SM Entertainment's performance ▲the consolidation of DearU ▲the recovery of Kakao Entertainment's performance.
Previously, Kakao announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI last month. Research Institute An stated, 'Services applied with the tap restructuring and AI business model are expected to be revealed by the first half of this year at the earliest,' and added, 'We expect a variety of services, including the introduction of ChatGPT within KakaoTalk, shop search restructuring, subscription model implementation, and AI-based shopping recommendations, and anticipate that this will resolve the issue of the lack of momentum related to AI surrounding Kakao all at once.'