Hana Securities said on the 7th that if plans for ground-breaking on Plant 6 and investment in new modality contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) facilities are confirmed at JPMHC on the 13th local time, it would serve as a catalyst for a share-price rise for Samsung Biologics. It maintained a Buy rating and raised the target price to 2.05 million won from 1.86 million won. The previous session's closing price for Samsung Biologics was 1.721 million won.
Kim Seon-a, a researcher at Hana Securities, forecast Samsung Biologics' fourth-quarter 2025 revenue at 1.2721 trillion won and operating profit at 560.5 billion won. That would be up 1.2% and 78.1%, respectively, from a year earlier. On an annual basis, she projected revenue of 4.5434 trillion won and operating profit of 2.1007 trillion won, up 29.9% and 59%, respectively, from the prior year. The operating profit margin (OPM) comes to 46.2%.
Kim said, "It will be difficult to maintain a 50% operating margin in the third quarter due to one-off fees related to the spin-off with Samsung Bioepis Holdings and an increase in year-end special expenses."
However, Kim noted, "There were concerns that fixed costs would surge as Plant 5 began operating in April, but aside from the fees paid in the second and third quarters, no significant expense increase related to the new plant's operation was observed. In addition, with the high exchange rate holding and the impact from consolidation due to the partitioning removed, it should be able to maintain an operating margin in the 40% range."
Kim advised paying attention to the ground-breaking news for Plant 6 this year. She explained, "Even with the 1.11 trillion won order contract on Dec. 19, there was little change in the share price, because news of the Plant 6 ground-breaking—which would help gauge the ramp-up speed of Plant 5—was delayed." If ground-breaking for Plant 6 and plans for investment in new CDMO facilities are unveiled at JPMHC on the 13th, she expected the share price to respond positively.
In particular, she assessed that the target price is markedly low given the order amount and OPM. Kim said, "The total order amount in 2025 is 6.8 trillion won, which is 1.4 trillion won higher than 5.4 trillion won in 2024," adding, "When comparing market capitalization by the annual change in orders, the current market capitalization falls far short of the performance the company is demonstrating."
She continued, "Lonza, the current close competitor, has an OPM of 21% based on forecast results for the next 12 months, while Samsung Biologics is maintaining the mid-40% range," adding, "Applying an EV/EBITDA multiple of 34 times for 2027, when we can meaningfully expect commercial revenue from Plant 5, we derived a fair price."