[Click eStock] "Shift Up, Worth Trying at Current Price... Expecting Performance Momentum in Second Half"

Yuanta Securities analyzed on the 17th that Shift Up's current stock price is undervalued and expects performance momentum in the second half of the year.

Lee Chang-young, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, stated in a report on the same day, "Shift Up's first-quarter performance this year showed sales of 43.1 billion KRW, a 15% increase compared to the previous year, but operating profit is expected to slightly underperform market expectations, decreasing by 2% to 25.5 billion KRW."

The global hit title "Goddess of Victory: NIKKE" is expected to generate sales of 32.5 billion KRW, down 11% year-on-year, as user ARPU declined ahead of a large-scale update in the second quarter despite various events and collaborations.

On the other hand, "Stella Blade" has contributed to overall performance growth by consistently selling around 80,000 packages per quarter. The operating profit margin is expected to be around 59%, down 12 percentage points from the previous quarter, due to the impact of one-time labor costs (bonuses).

Lee Chang-young of Yuanta Securities evaluated, "At the current price, it is worth trying," and focused on the possibility of a performance rebound centered on the Chinese market and the Steam launch.

The performance momentum gap in the second half is expected to be compensated by the success of "NIKKE" in China. As of the previous day, the number of pre-registrations in China reached approximately 6.57 million, the highest level among games serviced by Tencent.

Researcher Lee said, "'NIKKE' is recording the highest success even in Japan, where 'subculture' competition is the fiercest, and it is currently being maintained," adding, "Through collaboration with Tencent for content localization in China, concerns such as future market issues can be overcome." For reference, the representative game of the same genre, "Genshin Impact," recorded about 1.5 billion USD in sales over 40 months in China alone.

In June, the console game "Stella Blade" is scheduled to be released on the Steam platform. Steam currently has 33.67 million users and 12.5 million concurrent users, already surpassing console platforms. Especially due to the sluggish sales of the PS5, demand through the PC platform is expected to be significant. Regarding this, researcher Lee said, "We expect Steam sales to be at the same level as the initial console sales."

The researcher added, "As a result, if 'NIKKE,' scheduled to launch in China in May, and 'Stella Blade,' releasing on Steam in June, achieve better-than-expected results, they will be able to sufficiently fill the performance momentum gap caused by the absence of new releases in the second half. We assume the average daily sales of China's 'NIKKE' this year to be 1.17 billion KRW, ranking around 10th to 20th in sales, and Steam sales of 'Stella Blade' at the level of initial console sales," he said.