KB Securities said on the 13th that SK hynix is set to be the biggest beneficiary of a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory. It maintained its investment rating of Buy and raised its target price to 17 million won from 14 million won. SK hynix's closing price in the previous trading session was 9.3 million won.
Kim Dong-Won, head of research at KB Securities, said, "Given that it is realistically difficult to expand the supply of DRAM and NAND in the short term, the phase of memory undersupply is highly likely to continue at least until the end of 2027."
KB Securities revised up this year's DRAM price increase to 111% year over year and NAND price increase to 118% year over year.
Accordingly, it estimated SK hynix's first-quarter operating profit at 31 trillion won, up 4.2 times year over year. It expects second-quarter operating profit to be 40 trillion won, up 4.4 times year over year, noting that an earnings surprise (results exceeding market expectations) is anticipated. It projected this year's operating profit at 177 trillion won, about four times higher than a year earlier.
It also assessed as positive that global server customers have recently been focusing on securing memory volumes regardless of price.
Researcher Kim said, "AI data center companies are absorbing more than 60% of total DRAM and NAND shipments," adding, "Global big tech corporations are more than doubling AI infrastructure investment to enter the physical AI market in preparation for the era of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in 2030, and are rapidly increasing purchases of memory semiconductors."
In addition, the number of three- to five-year long-term supply agreements (LTA) that guarantee both volume and price is rising rapidly, leading to analysis that the outlook for upward revisions to future earnings estimates is also high.
Researcher Kim said, "Even though SK hynix has entered a high-growth phase, recording fourfold profit growth in 2026 from a year earlier, its current share price remains at a price-earnings ratio (PER) of about 4.3," adding, "Now is a time when SK hynix is highly likely to be revalued as a representative high-growth value stock."