APR(278470) is showing early gains as securities firms raise their target prices one after another following record-high quarterly results.
At 9:55 a.m. on the 6th, APR was trading at 378,500 won on the stock market, up 21,000 won (5.87%) from the previous session.
APR's consolidation sales in the second quarter of this year were 767.5 billion won, up 134.2% from a year earlier. Operating profit rose 134.5% to 190.6 billion won, with an operating margin of 24.8%. Both sales and operating profit were the highest ever on a quarterly basis.
Cumulative first-half sales also hit an all-time high at 1.3609 trillion won. That is close to last year's annual sales of 1.5273 trillion won. Sales in the cosmetics and beauty segment grew 185.5% to 648.3 billion won, driving growth.
The securities community also raised its expectations reflecting overseas sales expansion. Shinyoung Securities lifted its target price to 560,000 won from 510,000 won, and Eugene Investment & Securities raised it to 530,000 won from 510,000 won.
Lee Gyo-seok of Shinyoung Securities said, "Rather than quarterly profitability swings, attention should be on explosive sales growth and market share gains."
North American sales rose 265% to 376.3 billion won, and European sales increased 380% to 145.1 billion won. Analysts say the company is establishing a model of first boosting recognition on online channels such as Amazon and TikTok Shop, then expanding points of sale to offline distributors such as Target and Walmart.
Excluding one-off factors, the operating margin dipped somewhat due to higher marketing and air logistics costs, but Shinyoung Securities viewed these as expenses incurred in entering new markets. APR also raised this year's sales target to 3 trillion won from the previous 2.1 trillion won.