Hanwha Investment & Securities lowered its target stock price to 170,000 won on the 16th, saying its short-term momentum is sluggish due to regulatory pressure on Kakao, and maintained its "buy" investment opinion.
"Kakao has come up with several measures to cope with the recent move by the government and political circles to tighten regulations on the platform," Hanwha Investment & Securities said. "First, we reduced the mobility-related article membership fee from KRW 99,000 to KRW 39,000, stopped the smart call service, and changed the chauffeur service brokerage fee from the existing fixed 20% to 0 ~ 20%.".
"We believe this change is a factor that affects mobility sales of less than 5% from last year's KRW 280 billion," Hanwha Investment & Securities added. "We expect Kakao's sales in the third quarter to reach KRW 1.51 trillion, up 36.9% compared to the same period last year, and sales of Talk Biz to grow 41%," said Hanwha Investment & Securities.
"We believe that Kakao's stock price recently fell 28% compared to its high point, reflecting various regulatory concerns. However, considering that it has increased corporate value by achieving profitability in new business areas, short-term momentum is expected to be sluggish," Hanwha Investment & Securities said.
Hanwha Investment & Securities predicted that stock price volatility will expand for the time being due to the news flow related to government regulations.
Reporter Lee Dong-hoon usinvestmentidea2020@gmail.com