Soaring SK hynix Lifts SK Square: "Jump to 2.7 Million Won"...Supercycle Continues, Shareholder Returns [Click e-Stock]

On June 23, NH Investment & Securities raised its target price for SK Square from 1.1 million won to 2.7 million won, citing the accompanying increase in corporate value driven by the rise in SK hynix's share price. The brokerage maintained its "Buy" investment rating.

An Jaemin, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "As SK hynix's share price—which accounts for an overwhelming portion of SK Square's net asset value (NAV)—continues to rise, SK Square's corporate value is also increasing, in line with investor demand for maximizing semiconductor exposure within investment assets to achieve higher returns." He added, "Taking this into consideration, we calculated SK hynix's value in SK Square's NAV by applying our target price for SK hynix."

There are particularly high expectations for SK hynix to strengthen its shareholder return policy. Analyst An stated, "We expect SK hynix's shareholder return policy to be enhanced following the issuance of its American Depositary Receipts (ADR) in the United States. If SK hynix's dividend per share (DPS) expands to 13,000 won, SK Square will receive 1.9 trillion won in dividend income, which is expected to be used for aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities." He continued, "In addition, SK Square is likely to pursue active shareholder returns through share buybacks and cancellations, as well as cash dividends." In June 2026, SK Square paid a dividend of 1,500 won per share (totaling 204.3 billion won), and plans to buy back 40 billion won worth of treasury shares in 2026 and 70 billion won in 2027.

The semiconductor supercycle is not expected to end in the short term. The semiconductor industry is anticipated to grow in importance as the age of agent artificial intelligence (AI) highlights the significance of tokens and central processing units (CPUs), and expands the role of cloud and edge devices. Analyst An commented, "Demand is increasing across all sectors—including high bandwidth memory (HBM), server DRAM, SRAM, enterprise solid state drives (eSSD), and low-power DRAM (LPDDR)." He added, "The DRAM capacity required for a single AI inference server continues to rise, and HBM prices are also steadily increasing. As a result, SK hynix's share price is expected to climb further, and SK Square's corporate value will also rise in tandem."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.