Samsung Securities analyzed on the 13th that Kakao's sale of loss-making subsidiaries will speed up profitability improvement. It also maintained its "buy (BUY)" rating and raised its target price from 72,000 won to 73,000 won. Kakao's previous trading day closing price was 58,800 won.
Oh Dong-hwan, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said, "Kakao has set a goal of about 10% revenue growth and an operating margin of 10% this year, backed by high growth in the platform institutional sector," and noted, "Assuming strong growth in message ads, Pay, and mobility, along with additional sales of content subsidiaries, the targets are achievable."
Earlier, Kakao signed an equity exchange agreement (MOU) to swap the equity of its subsidiary AXZ, which operated the Daum service, with the equity of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Upstage. Oh said, "Through the equity exchange between the two companies, losses are expected to be excluded from consolidated results."
Kakao also sold Kakao Healthcare, excluding about 10 billion won in quarterly operating losses as discontinued operations. In addition, Kakao Games and Kakao Entertainment are known to be reviewing sales at present.
Kakao's consolidated revenue in the fourth quarter of last year rose 9.2% year over year to 2.1332 trillion won. Operating profit rose 136% from a year earlier to 203.4 billion won.
However, Oh said securing long-term growth drivers is a task. Oh said, "The profitability improvement trend is positive, but the 2026 price-earnings ratio (PER) is still 35 times, higher than competitors, so securing long-term growth drivers is necessary for further stock gains."