April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Kia Motors’ fourth-quarter earnings last year have been slow, said Hana Financial Investment on Jan. 8, lowering the target price to 40,000 won (US$37.66) from 43,000 won.

Suffering from slow sales and unfavorable exchange rate, its revenue slipped 2 percent on-year to 12.7 trillion won and operating profit fell 33 percent to 359.2 billion won, below market consensus, estimated analyst Song Seon-jae. 

Its stock price will dawdle in the short term as Korean won remains strong in the first quarter but from March will begin to gain some momentum as it rolls out new models including K3, K9 and Soul, forecast the analyst. 

Its sales target this year is 2.87 million cars -- 520,000 in Korea and 2.35 million overseas -- and it will be able to reach the goal, according to Song.
Although domestic sales will dip slightly from lower demand and launch of new competing cars, overseas sales will rise due to launch of new vehicles in Europe and low baseline in China, he added.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)