[Click eStock] "KB Geumyung Proves Excellent Fundamentals... Target Price Up 10%"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Korea Investment & Securities on the 23rd maintained a buy rating on KB Financial Group, stating that its Q3 net profit exceeded consensus by 18%, demonstrating strong fundamentals, and raised the target price by 10% from 49,000 KRW to 54,000 KRW.

Baek Doosan, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, analyzed, "The controlling net profit for Q3 was 1.1666 trillion KRW, exceeding consensus by 18%. Even excluding one-time factors such as the 145 billion KRW bargain purchase gain related to the acquisition of Prudential Life Insurance, the recurring net profit remained solid at 980 billion KRW."

Despite a decrease in other group business income and expenses, non-bank performances such as securities and capital showed significant improvement compared to the previous quarter. Additionally, profitability-focused management minimized the bank's net interest margin (NIM).

Researcher Baek Doosan evaluated, "The bank's NIM was 1.49%, down 1 basis point from the previous quarter. Despite the lingering effects of the May base rate cut, the proportion of low-cost deposits in Q3 rose to 48.4%, up 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter, thanks to an emphasis on profitability-focused management."

Researcher Baek explained, "Quarterly bank won-denominated loans increased by 1.7% compared to the previous quarter, with household loans growing 2.4% quarter-on-quarter, mainly driven by credit loans and jeonse deposit loans. The annual loan growth rate is expected to close at 9.4% this year."