Samsung Securities said on the 26th that amid the semiconductor investment cycle, PSK is expected to benefit from diversifying its customer base and expanding market share. It initiated coverage with a "buy" rating and a target price of 180,000 won. The previous session's closing price was 129,900 won.
Moon Jun-ho, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said, "PSK is expected to post an earnings growth rate over the next three years comparable to that of global front-end equipment makers," and noted, "It does not have the typical weakness of domestic equipment makers—dependence on a specific customer—so the valuation gap is expected to narrow."
According to Samsung Securities, PSK has secured all major integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) as customers except the largest foundry. It said the company has gained an outsized growth opportunity as, in addition to domestic memory customers, North American memory companies and Intel have joined the capital expenditure (CAPEX) cycle. It also pointed to the possibility of additional market share gains and benefits from U.S.-China tensions.
Moon said, "The main competitors for dry strip equipment are Chinese corporations or under the control of the Chinese government, so PSK's market share is expected to grow ahead of new capacity additions in North America," and predicted, "When equipment deliveries to North American plants ramp up starting next year, the spillover benefits will resume."
The momentum from diversifying equipment such as dry cleaning and bevel etchers was also evaluated positively. Moon added, "New capacity additions are underway at memory customers that have adopted dry cleaning, and a reassessment of bevel etchers to maximize production in a supply shortage phase is also expected." Samsung Securities estimated PSK's sales this year at 685.6 billion won, up 49.9% from a year earlier, and operating profit at 183.3 billion won, up 107.2%.