[Market Focus] SK Telecom Shares Jump 11%... Securities Firms Offer Positive Outlook for This Year

SK Telecom's stock price, which had been sluggish due to incidents such as hacking, jumped more than 11%. Securities firms also gave positive evaluations, citing base effects and participation in government-supported artificial intelligence (AI) projects, and forecast strong growth for the company this year.

As of 9:52 a.m. on January 27, SK Telecom was trading at 69,100 won, up 11.81% from the previous day. The company appears to be moving past last year's hacking incident, which was a major setback.

Securities firms also gave a positive outlook for SK Telecom this year. Kim Hongsik, a researcher at Hana Securities, raised his target price by 45% to 80,000 won, stating, "Most investors are already aware of the weak fourth-quarter results and the possibility of no dividend payout last year, and thanks to the low base, we expect strong profit growth to return this year."

Kim also noted, "Although dividends decreased last year due to the hacking incident, this year, dividend payouts are expected to surge again thanks to gains from stock sales. If SK Telecom is selected as an independent AI foundation model provider, it will likely gain a supply advantage."

Lee Seungwoong, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, said, "The value of SK Telecom's stake in Anthropic, which it invested in during 2023, is estimated to have risen from $100 million (about 130 billion won) to $1.75 billion (about 2.5 trillion won)." He added, "If we reflect the revaluation of investment stake value and the attractiveness of dividends due to normalized earnings this year, the current stock price is undervalued, so we maintain a 'buy' rating and a target price of 71,000 won."