Shinhan Investment Corp. assessed that Samsung Biologics achieved an earnings surprise easing tariff concerns. It raised the target stock price from 1.3 million won to 1.35 million won and maintained its investment opinion of "buy." The previous day's closing price of Samsung Biologics was 1.066 million won.
Earlier, Samsung Biologics announced its first-quarter (January to March) revenue of 1.2983 trillion won and operating profit of 486.7 billion won on the 23rd. This represents increases of 37.1% and 119.9% compared to the same period last year, respectively. The operating profit for the first quarter is the largest quarterly performance to date.
Eom Min-yong, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., cited several factors behind the record performance: ▲decreased internal transactions, ▲sales growth due to increased production at Plant 4, ▲strong sales of Samsung Bioepis' biosimilars, and ▲favorable exchange rate effects.
Eom noted, "Samsung Bioepis's separate sales are expected to increase by 43% compared to last year, thanks to growth in sales of existing products and the U.S. launch of the new product SB17," adding that "sales of biosimilar products (excluding milestones) are also expected to grow by 20%."
For now, Eom judges that the concerns over U.S. tariffs are not significant. He stated, "Samsung Biologics achieved a total cumulative order of $17.8 billion, having signed the largest ever contract worth about 2 trillion won with a European pharmaceutical company in January without a manufacturing facility in the U.S."
This contrasts with the recent decision by global pharmaceutical company Regeneron, which seems to be conscious of U.S. tariffs after signing a supply contract worth 4 trillion won with Japan's Fujifilm.