Daol Investment & Securities said on the 9th that APR is continuing to show strong sales even in the off-season and that its first-quarter results this year will beat market expectations. It maintained its investment opinion of "Buy" and raised its target price to 460,000 won from the previous 350,000 won. APR's closing price in the previous session was 335,000 won.
Park Jong-hyun, an analyst at Daol Investment & Securities, said, "It is expected to beat market expectations on the back of strong sales in the United States and elsewhere," adding, "Not only during Amazon's Big Spring Day, a large-scale discount event, but rankings in ordinary months are also being stably maintained."
Daol Investment & Securities forecast APR's first-quarter revenue this year at 580.3 billion won and operating profit at 141.3 billion won. Revenue would be up 118% from a year earlier, and operating profit up 159%. U.S. revenue was projected at 241.0 billion won, a 240% surge from a year earlier.
Park said, "Considering that the results are similar to the fourth quarter of last year, when there were three events—Prime Day, Black Friday, and Christmas—this is an encouraging outcome."
Revenue from other regions was forecast at 186.4 billion won, up 207% from a year earlier. This reflects strong cross-border sales and the confirmed effect of direct sales in Europe.
This year's revenue was projected at 2.6 trillion won and operating profit at 666.2 billion won. Revenue would rise 71% from a year earlier, and operating profit 82%, on expectations for further expansion into Amazon Europe and additional offline contracts in the United States. Also cited was the fact that, even in the first quarter, which is viewed as an off-season due to the relative absence of discount seasons, the company is showing strong sales that exceed market expectations.
APR's foreign ownership ratio was below 15% as recently as early last year, but stood at 35% as of early April this year.
Park added, "The global cosmetics sector is suffering weak results due to an excessive proportion of China sales and failure to respond to indie brands, and in the midst of that, APR is lifting corporate value by delivering results that beat market expectations day after day."