Yuanta Securities Korea on the 20th said growth at NCSOFT will continue on the back of rising revenue from existing games and new releases. The firm maintained its "Buy" investment opinion and raised its target price to 360,000 won from 310,000 won. NCSOFT's closing price in the previous trading day was 221,000 won.
Yuanta Securities Korea said NCSOFT will keep its growth momentum thanks to higher revenue from existing games and quarterly launches of new titles.
Lee Chang-young, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, gave a positive outlook for existing games such as "AION2" and "Lineage Classic" at NCSOFT. Regarding AION2, the analyst said, "It has maintained nearly 1.5 million daily active users (DAU) in the early days after launch, and first-quarter revenue is expected to be about 135 billion won, including 16.7 billion won carried over from the fourth quarter."
The analyst added, "Traffic is solid, so membership revenue—estimated at 30%–40% of total—should also be firm," and explained, "Item sales are also expected to be steady, and with a global launch in the third quarter, second-half revenue is projected to increase."
On Lineage Classic, the analyst said it "surpassed 320,000 concurrent users," adding, "Payments last month (7th–26th) totaled 40 billion won, and as of the 19th this month it ranks No. 2 in PC cafe rankings, with current daily payments estimated at over 2 billion won."
The mobile game ad reward platform "JustPlay" is projected to post $325 million (about 480 billion won) in revenue and $40 million (about 60 billion won) in operating profit this year.
The analyst said NCSOFT has growth momentum from quarterly new releases.
The analyst said, "There will be one new-title momentum each quarter—'Time Takers' in the second quarter this year, 'Breakers' in the third quarter, 'Cinder City' in the fourth quarter, and 'Horizon' in the first quarter next year," adding, "We expect market expectations for growth to keep rising."