[Click e-Stock] "SKT: Recent Sharp Decline Presents Buying Opportunity"

On May 28, Hana Securities stated that the recent sharp decline in SK Telecom (SKT) shares presents a buying opportunity, and selected SKT as its top pick among telecommunications service stocks for June. The firm maintained its "Buy" rating and a target price of 70,000 won.

Recently, there have been significant concerns about SKT's performance due to several factors: the occurrence of USIM replacement costs, the possibility of penalty waivers, a decline in market share and a net decrease in subscribers, the potential for losing a personal information leakage lawsuit, and the possibility of fines. However, Hana Securities expects SKT to deliver reasonably solid results both in the second quarter and for the full year of 2025.

Kim Hongsik, a researcher at Hana Securities, said, "Although USIM replacement costs will be incurred in the second quarter and the net decrease in subscribers will lead to a decline in mobile service revenue, the simultaneous reduction in marketing expenses means that the likelihood of a second-quarter earnings shock is low." He added, "For the full year 2025, one-off costs will have a negative impact on operating profit, but the effect of reduced revenue will be offset by lower marketing expenses, so the impact on operating profit is not expected to be significant." He also judged that the negative impact of declining mobile revenue due to lower market share will affect operating profit more in 2026 than in 2025.

Kim further stated, "Ultimately, if the assumption holds that there is no significant damage to fundamentals and dividends do not decrease, SKT's share price is highly likely to rebound from its current level." He predicted that strong buying interest would emerge, given that SKT's expected dividend yield has reached 7% due to the recent sharp drop in share price, placing it at the lower end of its historical dividend yield band.