Korea Investment Securities noted on the 7th that in the current uncertain stock market conditions, the corporate valuation is low, making it attractive for investment. They maintained a 'buy' rating and a target price of 260,000 won. The closing price for Naver on the previous trading day was 197,800 won.
Jeong Ho-yun, a researcher at Korea Investment Securities, said, "In the current stock market situation, stable performance and low valuation burden are quite attractive," adding, "At the current stock price level, it is advisable to gradually accumulate shares with a long-term perspective."
Korea Investment Securities estimated that Naver would record a revenue of 2.78 trillion won and an operating profit of 507.8 billion won in the first quarter. This corresponds to year-on-year increases of 10.1% and 15.6%, respectively. The operating profit meets the market estimate of 521.8 billion won.
Jeong, the researcher, believes that Naver will maintain a steady performance growth trend this year. He said, "The search platform will steadily increase revenue centered on search ads, and commerce will also reflect the effects of new app launches and a fee increase that will take effect from June, leading to an increase in growth rate as we move into the second half of the year."
He also noted that efforts are needed to raise the low corporate valuation through new businesses related to artificial intelligence (AI). Research Institute Jeong stated, "As issues related to performance continue to arise in newly launched AI services such as AI briefing, efforts are required to enhance service quality using various high-performance large language models (LLMs)."
Additionally, he added, "The technological advancement of AI will open new markets and opportunities for domestic corporations like Naver in the long term," and that "the outcomes related to AI will become increasingly important."