Brokerages raise target price for Samsung on upbeat Q4 outlook

(Kim Ho-young)

Market expectations are rising ahead of Samsung Electronics Co.’s preliminary fourth-quarter earnings announcement scheduled for Thursday. Attention is on whether the tech giant can surpass 20 trillion won ($13.8 billion) in quarterly operating profit for the first time.

According to the securities industry Monday, two brokerage firms project Samsung Electronics’ fourth-quarter operating profit to exceed 20 trillion won.

IBK Securities Co. and Daol Investment & Securities Co. project operating profits of 21.7 trillion won and 20.4 trillion won, respectively.

Strong earnings forecasts have prompted brokerages to revise target prices higher.

Shinhan Securities Co. on Monday raised its target price by 18 percent to 173,000 won, the highest among brokerages, while estimating fourth-quarter operating profit at 19.4 trillion won on the back of a favorable semiconductor cycle.

Heungkuk Securities Co. also lifted its target price, citing the onset of an unprecedented memory supercycle. Pointing to declining inventories and rising prices, the firm raised its target to 170,000 won.

Currently, three brokerages—Shinhan Securities, Heungkuk Securities and SK Securities Co.—have set target prices in the 170,000 won range for Samsung Electronics.

Market attention is also turning to whether Samsung Electronics can usher in an era of 100 trillion won in annual operating profit this year, fueld by the semiconductor boom.

In a report released in December, KB Securities Co. said Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest producer of DRAM, is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of rising prices for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and conventional DRAM.

“Achieving 100 trillion won in operating profit in 2026 is now within sight,” it said, which represents an increase of about 130 percent from the previous year.

(Kim Ho-young)

Samsung Electronics is also reported to have raised fourth-quarter DRAM prices by about 60 percent, marking the largest price increase on record.

Building on that trend, experts expect the company to maintain aggressive price hikes in the first quarter as memory chip supply shortages persist.

Samsung Electronics has expressed confidence in its semiconductor business, which is driving earnings growth.

In a New Year’s address on Friday, Jun Young-hyun, head of Samsung Electronics Co.’s semiconductor division, underscored the company’s strength in semiconductors, describing the company as the “only semiconductor company in the world capable of providing a one-stop solution spanning logic chips, memory, foundry services and advanced packaging.”