[Click eStock] "BH Misses Q4 Earnings Estimates... Target Price Down"

Meritz Securities on the 20th downgraded the target price of BH to 25,000 KRW, stating that the fourth-quarter operating profit significantly missed estimates. The investment rating was maintained as 'Buy.'

Researcher Yang Seung-su said, "The fourth-quarter sales of 516.7 billion KRW met our estimates, but the operating profit of 50.8 billion KRW fell short by 66.1%."

He added, "Although sales to domestic customers were sluggish, the expansion of supply to North American customers and increased sales of BH EVS resulted in the highest quarterly sales. However, operating profit was weak due to multiple one-time costs, including additional setup costs for the new IT OLED line and external processing fees."

For the first quarter of this year, sales are projected to decrease by 0.7% year-on-year to 311.6 billion KRW, and operating profit is expected to decline by 8.7% to 8.1 billion KRW.

Researcher Yang said, "We expect sales to domestic customers to expand due to strong sales of the S series and continued strong sales of BH EVS. However, due to the poor performance of the iPhone 15, the possibility of a sales rebound for RF-PCB to North American customers in the first half of the year is considered limited."