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Stock market experts predicted that last year’s strong share price will continue until this year, citing Samsung Electronics as the best stock to lead the Korean stock market this year. Samsung Electronics is still undervalued compared to its global competitors, and secondary battery-related stocks are expected to be promising among other industries. As a result of selecting the leading stocks that will lead the Korean stock market this year through 19 experts, including the head of the research center of Maeil Economic Daily and the chief investment officer (CIO) of an asset management company, Samsung Electronics received the most selection with a total of 14 recommendations.
Recently, securities companies are raising their target price for Samsung Electronics to the 90,000 won range. The value of the foundry business of Samsung Electronics is rising, and the lower share price-earnings ratio (PER) than global competitors seems to have had an impact. The PER, obtained by dividing the company’s stock price by earnings per share, is an indicator of how overvalued the stock has been.
According to Samsung Securities on the day, the PER of Samsung Electronics calculated based on this year’s expected net profit is 15.1x. Considering that Apple is 34.1x, Micron 19.4x, TSMC 24.3x, and Qualcomm 20.9x, it can be considered that it is still undervalued.
Korea Investment & Securities recently raised its target price for Samsung Electronics to 92,000 won. Yoo Jong-won, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, “The stock price has risen sharply since the beginning of November last year, but the valuation appeal is still high among global semiconductor companies.”
Last year, due to the intensive purchase of Donghak ants, the gap between individual and institutional investors in Samsung Electronics’ ownership has narrowed to 0.6 percentage points. At the end of 2019, individuals owned 3.6% and institutions owned 8.7%, but last year, individuals bought 17.71 million shares (2.97%), while institutions sold 97.5 million shares (1.64%). Minority shareholders with less than 1% of Samsung Electronics’ shares are expected to exceed 2 million at the end of last year.
After Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, recommended by 11 experts, received the second most selection. On the other hand, only two experts picked SK Hynix, the second largest market cap. Hyundai Motor’s share price rose by about 60% last year alone, but experts say it still has upside potential. Hyundai Motor Company also has a lower PER compared to major competitors such as the US and Japan. Currently, Hyundai Motor’s PER is at 8.8x, similar to or lower than Toyota (14.9x) Ford (8.7x) and BMW (8.9x). In particular, considering the US Tesla PER of 172x, it is evaluated that there is still upside potential.
According to Shinyoung Securities, Hyundai’s electric vehicle sales share is expected to increase from 5.6% to 10% in 2025 and 19% in 2030. “Hyundai Motor will apply autonomous driving technology (level 3) sequentially from 2022,” said Moon Yong-kwon, a researcher at Shinyoung Securities. Looked out.
Experts diagnosed that secondary battery-related stocks will also lead the Korean stock market. LG Chem (5 people) and Samsung SDI (3 people) were selected as the stocks to watch out for among secondary battery-related stocks. In particular, as the global electric vehicle market is expected to grow to more than 4 million units this year, battery demand is expected to continue.
The number of experts who recommended Naver and Kakao, the owners of Untact (non-face-to-face), was less than expected. It is interpreted by the prospect that so-called contact stocks (face-to-face stocks) may rebound in anticipation of the spread of the Corona 19 vaccine and economic revitalization.
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