IBK Securities noted on the 13th that it will lower its performance estimates for SK Telecom, reflecting the expenses related to the security incident, subscriber leakage, and the suspension of new subscriber recruitment. Accordingly, it maintains its investment opinion as 'buy', but adjusts the target price down from 77,000 won to 70,000 won.
SK Telecom recorded consolidated revenue of 4.4537 trillion won and operating profit of 567.4 billion won in the first quarter of this year. Both the revenue and operating profit met the market expectations of 4.5042 trillion won and 535.2 billion won, respectively. On a separate basis, revenue decreased by 0.7% from the previous year to 3.1675 trillion won due to a decline in access revenue. This was due to a reduction in operating expenses, such as commissions and depreciation.
Kim Tae-hyun, a researcher at IBK Securities, said, "The stabilization of marketing expenses and the decrease in depreciation due to the maturation of the 5G market are the main reasons."
He added, "The cost burden for responding to future cyber intrusion incidents and restoring customer trust is expected to be inevitable," and noted, "In particular, the timing of resuming new subscriber recruitment is expected to act as a key variable in future performance and stock price trends."
Kim noted, "Nevertheless, the dividend yield at the current stock price is expected to be 6.8%, and expectations for strengthening AI-related businesses, such as increased demand for AI data centers and growth in adot subscribers, remains valid, so we maintain a buy opinion."