Hanwha Investment & Securities said on the 24th that APR is expected to post record-high sales in the third quarter (July–September). It raised its earnings outlook, but because the adjustment was not large, it maintained a Buy rating and a target price of 300,000 won.
Hanwha Investment & Securities estimated that in the third quarter this year APR will post 369.7 billion won in sales and 85.8 billion won in operating profit on a consolidation basis. The figures are up 112% and 215%, respectively, from a year earlier, and are expected to meet market expectations.
Han Yu-jung, an analyst at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, "This quarter's growth appears to have been driven by steep top-line expansion in the U.S. market," and added, "Sales during Amazon Prime Day in Jul. jumped sixfold from a year earlier, far exceeding the market's expectations."
Han picked APR as the top pick in the cosmetics sector. Han said, "As competing brands that benchmark APR's success continue to emerge, marketing competition could intensify," but added, "APR has already widened the investment scale gap significantly, with a weight class at a top-tier level that exceeds 300 billion won in quarterly sales and 300 billion won in annual EBITDA."
Han added, "In the mid to long term, the success formula in the United States will also apply to Europe and other regions, and growth in non-U.S. countries is expected to follow U.S. growth."