NH Investment & Securities noted on the 25th that the asset value increase and shareholder return expectations would drive up the stock price of SK Square. The target price has been raised from the previous 120,000 won to 165,000 won, while the investment opinion is maintained as 'buy.'
SK Square is seeing an increase in its net asset value (NAV) recently due to the rising stock price of SK hynix, which accounts for the largest share of its NAV. Despite experiencing short-term stock price adjustments due to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's comments on the AI bubble and concerns about Samsung Electronics' potential entry into high bandwidth memory (HBM) and HBM oversupply, AI investments are expected to continue in the long term. The competitiveness and technological advantages related to HBM are also likely to persist, suggesting that the upward trend will continue for the time being.
The recovery of subsidiaries outside of SK hynix is also a positive factor. Wave received approval from the Fair Trade Commission for its merger with Tving in June. T map Mobility significantly reduced its operating loss from 13.6 billion won in the second quarter of last year to 3.8 billion won in the same quarter this year.
As part of its shareholder return policy, a stock buyback worth 100 billion won is also underway until September. Given that a stock buyback and retirement worth 200 billion won was conducted last year, the proactive shareholder return policy is expected to be a key investment point for SK Square.
An Jae-min, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, stated, 'The rising stock price of its major subsidiary, SK hynix, is elevating the corporate value of SK Square,' and added, 'The active stock buyback will also reduce the discount rate compared to the net asset value.'