Among cosmetics stocks that fell on the Iran crisis, APR shares are showing a particularly steep rebound.
Experts note that as APR expands sales through Amazon in the United States, its results are improving sharply, not only with simple cosmetics products but also by being recognized for innovation in the "beauty DEVICE" field.
APR shares plunged to around 260,000 won on the 3rd to 4th of this month, immediately after the Iran war broke out. But as fear over the war has eased somewhat recently, the share price recovered to 360,000 won. After the sharp drop triggered by the Iran crisis, APR shares jumped more than 35% over the past 10 trading days. During the same period, the KOSPI index rose 16%, meaning APR rebounded from the bad news unusually fast.
Unlike APR's unbridled rise, other cosmetics stocks are barely keeping pace with the KOSPI's gain. During this period (the 4th to the 18th), d'Alba Global, Amorepacific, and COSMAX rose around 8% to 10%, falling short of the KOSPI's increase.
Experts analyze that when the stock market underwent a steep correction, investors focused on corporations with a sure "safety net" of improving earnings, driving APR's sharp rebound.
APR is capturing both "cost-effectiveness" and "innovation," driving a surge in sales in North America, the world's largest market. In particular, APR is cementing its position in the U.S. market by expanding sales of cost-effective products on online platforms such as Amazon and TikTok Shop.
Park Jong-dae, a Meritz Securities analyst, said, "The key to APR's sharply improving results is that it competed in the U.S. market with the two keywords of cost-effectiveness and innovation."
In particular, among the top 100 Amazon products last year, APR's entries increased from two in the first half of last year to eight in March this year.
Lee Gyo-seok, a Shinyoung Securities analyst, said, "In the U.S. market, where offline dominates, APR achieved explosive U.S.-bound sales growth of about 350% last year year over year, centered on online sales based on 'Amazon' and 'TikTok Shop,'" and added, "Even for Amorepacific, the Korean brand that entered the U.S. first, the share of U.S. sales is still around 60% offline."
Putting forward "innovation" in cosmetics is also underpinning the increase in overseas sales. APR, which runs the home beauty DEVICE brand "AGE-R," doubled cumulative sales of beauty DEVICEs from 3 million units in Dec. 2024 to 6 million units in Jan. this year. In the second half of this year, it also plans to enter the medical device field as a new business.
The analyst said, "APR's beauty DEVICE revenue is expected to rise 15% year over year this year to 468.3 billion won," and added, "We expect growing interest among global consumers in scientific validation of skin improvement to spur broader use of DEVICEs."