[Special Stock] NCSoft Hits 52-Week Low... Market Cap Falls Below 10 Trillion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] NCSoft recorded its lowest price in 52 weeks. This is interpreted as the stock price being dragged down by poor earnings performance.

As of 10:20 AM on the 24th in the KOSPI market, NCSoft is trading at 450,000 KRW, down 2.91% from the previous trading day.

The market capitalization fell below 10 trillion KRW, standing at 9.8903 trillion KRW.

NCSoft's stock price has plummeted following the announcement of disappointing earnings. From the day after the earnings announcement on the 16th until the previous day, the stock price dropped a total of 9.65%.

NCSoft reported that its consolidated operating profit for last year decreased by 54.51% year-on-year to 375.2 billion KRW, affected by increased marketing and labor costs. Sales also declined by 4.4% during the same period, recording 2.3088 trillion KRW, according to the disclosure.

Hanwha Investment & Securities downgraded its investment opinion to 'Hold' the day after NCSoft announced its earnings, lowering the target price to 580,000 KRW.

Kim So-hye, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, analyzed, "The decline in sales of existing games is steeper than expected, and the increase in selling and administrative expenses such as labor and marketing costs may reduce profit growth more than anticipated. Additionally, new releases are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, so there is a lack of growth momentum."