[Click eStock] "Hana Financial Group, Shareholder Returns Expected to Increase... Target Price Up"

On the 22nd, NH Investment & Securities upgraded the target price of Hana Financial Group from 65,000 KRW to 80,000 KRW, stating that "the period when the discount rate reduction due to expectations of the value-up program policy is more significantly reflected in the stock price." The buy rating was also maintained.

Jung Soon-seop, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "Although we lowered this year's earnings forecast by reflecting the estimated compensation amount for losses of equity-linked securities (ELS) investors (150 billion KRW), the discount rate was reduced from 55% to 45% due to corporate value-up expectations."

Researcher Jung explained, "Although the common equity tier 1 ratio (CET1) may decline compared to the end of last year due to the recent rise in the KRW-USD exchange rate, there is no expected problem in fulfilling the shareholder return at the currently anticipated scale," adding, "Despite uncertainties such as exchange rates and ELS, the scale of shareholder returns by Hana Financial Group this year is expected to increase compared to last year."

He said, "The expected dividend per share (DPS) of Hana Financial Group this year is 3,660 KRW (610 KRW for Q1?Q3, 1,830 KRW for Q4), and the total shareholder return ratio, including the expected amount of treasury stock repurchase and cancellation (350 billion KRW), is about 38%," adding, "Despite the recent stock price increase, the shareholder return yield (including treasury stock repurchase and cancellation as dividends) still reaches 7.6%. It is still a range where shareholder return attractiveness can be reflected in the stock price."

Furthermore, "Hana Financial Group's first-quarter net income attributable to controlling interests is expected to be 943.2 billion KRW. Excluding non-recurring factors (approximately 50 billion KRW valuation loss due to exchange rate increase, assuming 50 billion KRW ELS compensation), the overall performance is solid," he added.