On the 18th, NH Investment & Securities evaluated that SK Telecom's subscriber churn has concluded and the negative issues have ended. It maintained its investment opinion of 'buy' and raised the target price from 63,000 won to 65,000 won. SK Telecom's closing price the previous day was 56,400 won.
As of the 14th, 1.05 million subscribers eligible for penalty waiver had churned from SK Telecom. Considering the new subscribers, it is estimated that there was a net decrease of 730,000 subscribers.
Analyst Ahn Jae-min from NH Investment & Securities noted, "Although there has been damage to the image as the number one operator due to cyber incidents and a churn of 730,000 subscribers, I believe the worst is over and only recovery remains."
Analyst Ahn stated that while the subscriber churn is painful, they believe that large-scale compensation programs since August have minimized the churn numbers.
Analyst Ahn explained, "Initially, I assumed that 1.2 million subscribers would churn and that penalties exceeding 200 billion won would occur, but it will be lower than that level," and noted, "Considering this, we are revising this year's operating profit upward and have also raised the target price."
This year's operating profit for SK Telecom is expected to be 1.17 trillion won, a decrease of 35.9% compared to the same period last year.
Although significant performance decline is anticipated, the reason for the stock price remaining resilient lies in the expectation that the dividends per share will be maintained. SK Telecom's dividends per share are 3,540 won, with a dividend yield of 6.3%.
Analyst Ahn stated, "The board will decide on the semiannual dividend amount at the end of July," and added, "If it remains the same as the previous quarter at 830 won, I believe there will be no further negative issues."