KB Securities said on the 21st that for Naver, 2026 is a period when it must absorb the burden from last year's commerce reorganization, and that this will lead to a continued slowdown in the growth rate of its core business. It set an investment opinion of "Buy" and newly presented a target price of 280,000 won. Naver's closing price in the previous trading day was 198,100 won.
Lee Ji-eun, an analyst at KB Securities, said, "In 2026, it is a period when the base burden from last year's commerce reorganization must be absorbed across all areas of advertising and shopping," adding, "A slowdown in the growth rate of the core business is expected to continue." This year, Naver's operating profit is expected to rise 12% on-year to 2.4085 trillion won.
The fact that the advertising growth rate remains in the single digits is cited as a burden. In particular, as the commerce institutional sector, which accounts for 25% within advertising, has driven earnings growth so far, it projected that a high base burden will make a slowdown in future revenue growth inevitable.
Naver said it plans to expand ad inventory centered on an artificial intelligence (AI) tab and briefing in the second half, but it is still uncertain whether this will translate into results.
The analyst said, "It could serve as a short-term revenue growth driver, but there is a possibility of cannibalizing revenue from existing ads," adding, "It is uncertain whether it will lead to a phase of structural growth accompanied by an advertising upcycle, as seen with global big tech."
The commerce institutional sector is also continuing to reorganize its delivery system to strengthen competitiveness, including N Delivery and expanding dawn delivery. However, it analyzed that commerce revenue is also expected to see slower growth in the second half due to the high base effect from last year's second-quarter fee increases.
Meanwhile, although the share is still limited at about 11% to 14%, the financial and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) businesses continue to show solid growth. Both businesses are evaluated as medium- to long-term growth drivers rather than short-term earnings contributors.
The analyst said, "In the financial institutional sector, after a future tie-up with Dunamu, if the stablecoin market expands, there is potential to benefit from a strengthened role in payment and settlement infrastructure," adding, "For C2C as well, if AI agents and Naver Pay payment features are combined on the base of global platform traffic, it is expected to enable expansion of additional revenue models beyond advertising and fees."
As a result, the analysis is that this is a phase in which, amid a slowdown in the core business, the business axis is gradually shifting to medium- to long-term growth drivers.
The analyst added, "For a future rebound in the stock price, the key variables are expected to be a structural recovery in advertising growth after introducing ads in AI service inventory, the expansion potential of the financial and C2C businesses, and the visibility of new revenue models."