NH Investment & Securities said on the 6th that Shinhan Financial Group plans this year to increase dividends by more than 10% and keep dividends and treasury shares at a similar scale in total shareholder returns. It maintained its Buy rating and raised the target price to 113,000 won. Shinhan Financial Group's previous day's closing price was 90,900 won.
Shinhan Financial Group raised the fourth-quarter dividend per share (DPS) to 880 won last year to meet the requirements for separate taxation of dividend income. It also plans to pay a quarterly DPS of 740 won this year.
For treasury shares, it decided to buy back and cancel 700 billion won in the first half and said it would also push for a reduction dividend. It also achieved its 50% shareholder return ratio target early last year and plans to announce a new value-up policy in the first half of this year.
Jung Jun-seop, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said, "What differentiates Shinhan Financial Group's shareholder returns this year from competitors is that this year's dividends will be increased by more than 10% from last year," adding, "In that case, the room to increase treasury shares may be relatively constrained, but with the price-to-book ratio (PBR) now above 0.7 times, the utility of treasury share buybacks and cancellations has decreased compared with before, so expanding dividends is, in our view, a reasonable choice."
NH Investment & Securities projected Shinhan Financial Group's dividend aggregates this year at 1.384 trillion won and treasury share buybacks and cancellations at 1.4 trillion won.
Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group's controlling net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 was assessed to be in line with market consensus (the average of securities firms' forecasts). Jung said, "There were especially many one-off expenses, and underlying results were decent."