SK Securities said it maintains a neutral rating on Mirae Asset Securities, noting that valuation gains on investment assets such as SpaceX have driven the stock higher but that the sustainability of those earnings needs to be assessed.
Jang Young-im of SK Securities said, "Sharp earnings growth appeared thanks to valuation gains related to SpaceX and xAI totaling about 1 trillion won this year," but noted, "There are questions about the sustainability of such one-off valuation gains."
Jang added, "Return on equity (ROE) for 2026, reflecting the large valuation gains, is high at 17.7%, but the price-to-book ratio (PBR) for the same year reaches 2.7 times, meaning a considerable portion has already been priced into the stock."
She assessed the record performance of overseas subsidiaries positively. Pretax profit at overseas subsidiaries in 2025 was 489.1 billion won, up 200% from the prior year. Jang said, "It is encouraging that ROE improved to 8% this year," while adding, "The key variable is whether the earnings improvement can remain solid this year as well."
She also offered a favorable view on the plan to enhance corporate value. Mirae Asset Securities said it will keep a shareholder return ratio of at least 35% from 2024 to 2026 and will cancel at least 15 million common shares and 1 million preferred shares each year.
In particular, by paying 0.0073 share per share as a stock dividend, the total shareholder return ratio expanded to 40.2%, up from 39.8% a year earlier. The assessment was that "it is positive in that shareholder returns of 35% or more were achieved while minimizing the outflow of equity capital."
Jang said, "Given the need to cancel 110 million treasury shares created during the merger process, a simple cancellation would have imposed a burden of about 450 billion won in capital reduction," adding, "Considering that a significant portion of this year's profit is valuation gains on investment assets, a shareholder return method that combined a stock dividend was a rational choice."