[Click eStock] "CJ Freshway, Performance Growth Trend Fully Starts This Year"

IBK Investment & Securities forecasted on the 11th that CJ Freshway's performance growth is highly likely to accelerate in 2025. The buy rating and target price of 48,000 KRW were maintained.

Nam Seong-hyun, a researcher at CJ Freshway, explained, "CJ Freshway's Q4 performance met our expectations, and considering the sluggish business environment, we regard it as an encouraging figure."

CJ Freshway recorded consolidated sales of 850.2 billion KRW and operating profit of 25.2 billion KRW in Q4 last year. These figures represent increases of 7.9% and 3.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Researcher Nam cited the reasons for Q4 performance growth as ▲expanded growth in the raw materials division due to increased volume within the group ▲double-digit growth driven by an increased sales ratio to franchises and O2O growth despite a slowdown in the dining-out market ▲improved profitability through fixed cost efficiency (SG&A ratio decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 15.3% to 15.0%) ▲and growth in group catering due to orders secured last year, despite a slowdown in hospital meal services and some concession business downturns.

Researcher Nam expects CJ Freshway's O2O division growth this year to lead market share expansion, conservatively projecting online sales to exceed 100 billion KRW.

He stated, "CJ Freshway's performance growth is highly likely to accelerate in 2025. Considering its cash-generating ability, we judge it to be severely undervalued. Since we have entered the phase where performance growth is occurring, we expect the undervaluation to be resolved."