Amorepacific stocks tumble as Q2 results disappoint

[Photo by Yonhap]

Amorepacific Corp. stocks plummeted on Wednesday after the company announced second-quarter earnings that fell short of market expectations.

Amorepacific shares were trading at 133,300 won ($96.96) as of 9:11 a.m., down 19.60 percent from the previous close. Its preferred shares were also down 14.07 percent, trading at 40,000 won.

According to regulatory filings after market close on Tuesday, Amorepacific reported an estimated 4.2 billion won in operating profit for the second quarter of 2024, a 29.5 percent decrease from the same period during the previous year. This result was 94 percent below market expectations.

Korea Investment & Securities Co. lowered its target price for Amorepacific from 240,000 won to 200,000 won, citing the disappointing Q2 results. “Amorepacific’s Q2 performance fell short of expectations and our estimates due to weak results from its China-related business and COSRX Inc.,” the analysis said, predicting a short-term decline in the stock.

Conversely, Samsung Electronics Co. saw a boost in the morning session on Wednesday, thanks to news that its fifth-generation, 8-layer high-bandwidth memory, HBM3E, reportedly passed Nvidia Corp.’s quality verification.

Samsung Electronics shares were trading at 73,800 won as of 9:24 a.m., up 1,300 won (1.79 percent) from the previous day.

Reuters reported before the market opened that Samsung’s HBM3E had passed Nvidia’s quality check, with a supply contract expected soon and that full-scale supply is anticipated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024.

For its part, SK hynix Inc. experienced a drop in stock price due to heightened competition concerns. Nvidia’s largest HBM supplier saw its shares fall 4,500 won, or 2.75 percent, to 159,200 won. Hanmi Semiconductor Co., which supplies HBM manufacturing equipment to SK hynix, also saw an early decline of 3.44 percent on the same day.