From the first trading day of the new year, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix set new all-time highs. The move is seen as driven by a wave of upward revisions to the two corporations' target prices from the securities industry.
As of 10:15 a.m., Samsung Electronics was trading at 123,000 won on the Korea Exchange, up 3,100 won (2.59%) from the prior trading day (Dec. 30). It is an all-time high.
At the same time, SK hynix was trading at 658,000 won, up 7,000 won (1.08%) from the prior trading day. SK hynix hit an all-time high at the start of trading at 662,000 won before giving back part of its gains.
The securities industry raised Samsung Electronics' target price on the day. Kim Un-ho, an analyst at IBK Securities, said of Samsung Electronics, "With memory prices moving sharply, results in the fourth quarter of 2025 will increase significantly," adding, "In 2026, as the semiconductor division's performance improves in earnest, it will benefit the most from a growth framework centered on DRAM and NAND," and raised the target price from 140,000 won to 155,000 won.
Major securities firms also raised their target prices for SK hynix across the board. The targets are as follows: ▲ NH Investment & Securities 880,000 won ▲ Hyundai Motor Securities 790,000 won ▲ Daishin Securities Co. 840,000 won ▲ IBK Securities 860,000 won ▲ DAOL Investment & Securities 950,000 won.
Noh Geun-chang, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, said, "There were concerns that SK hynix's product mix, with a high share of high bandwidth memory (HBM), could temper the strength of short-term earnings surprises amid the sharp rise in commodity memory prices, but HBM3E, which also uses DRAM dies as materials and supplies, will not be left out of the upward price trend," adding, "Having a product lineup optimized for high-performance computing (HPC) environments is improving earnings visibility."
Hyundai Motor Securities projected SK hynix's fourth-quarter 2025 revenue and operating profit at 33.7 trillion won and 16.8 trillion won, respectively, and said this year's annual operating profit will reach 9.57 trillion won.