April 17, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] SK hynix will maintain its strong earnings momentum, said Hana Financial Investment on June 21, maintaining a “buy” recommendation and 120,000 won (US$108.19) target price. 

Despite fears of a slowdown, the DRAM industry is still robust. Its revenue in the second quarter will hike 52 percent on-year to 10.14 trillion won and operating profit by 71 percent to 5.2 trillion won. Although smartphone shipments in the first half were lower than expected, demand for servers and graphics has boosted the DRAM sector’s solid growth. The trend will be maintained in the second half and next year, said analyst Kim Rok-ho.

The fact that it will begin to supply enterprise-grade solid-state drives equipped with 72-layer 3D NANDs is significant. When the supply begins in earnest in the latter half, profits may improve, said Kim estimating that SK hynix’s operating profit in the latter half will increase 21 percent from the earlier half to 11.59 trillion won.

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