[Click eStock] "STI, Highlighted Price Attractiveness"

Daol Investment & Securities analyzed on the 19th that STI is at a point where its price attractiveness is highlighted. The investment opinion 'Buy' and the target price of 35,000 KRW were maintained.

Daol Investment & Securities forecasted that STI will record sales of 132.7 billion KRW and operating profit of 18 billion KRW in the fourth quarter of last year. This represents increases of 48% and 51% respectively compared to the same period last year.

Go Young-min, a researcher at Daol Investment & Securities, explained, "A strong performance is expected, significantly exceeding the operating profit estimate of 12.4 billion KRW," adding, "The main reasons are the recognition of delayed infrastructure projects and an increase in sales of high-profit pharmaceutical equipment."

The expected sales and operating profit for this year are 544.8 billion KRW and 71.6 billion KRW, respectively, marking increases of 63% and 166% compared to the previous year. He explained, "Last year, major client infrastructure projects were delayed, falling short of expectations. Taking this into account, this year's estimates reflect projects with high visibility."

He said, "Expectations were extremely low during the continuous quarterly performance shortfalls caused by last year's front-end investment delays," and added, "The fourth-quarter performance surprise last year is expected to act as an event that reverses the sentiment."

Researcher Go emphasized, "Even though conservative assumptions were applied to the infrastructure projects scheduled for this year, the current stock price stands out for its low price attractiveness with a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 5.8 times based on this year's earnings."