[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] Meritz Securities announced on the 20th that it is maintaining its “Buy” rating and target price of 26,000 won for CheilWorldwide(030000).

Jeong Ji-soo, an analyst at Meritz Securities, stated, “We forecast the 2026 DPS (dividend per share) to be 1,230 won, the same level as the previous year (1,230 won), and the possibility of a phased cancellation of the 12% of treasury stock held is expected to become clearer in the second half of the year,” adding “The current stock price is trading at a P/E ratio of just 9.5 times based on 2026 earnings,” she added.
Consolidated second-quarter results are projected to show gross profit of 490.1 billion won (up 1.3% year-over-year) and operating profit of 93.3 billion won (up 1.3%), slightly below the market consensus (operating profit of 94.0 billion won). He explained, “We understand that major advertisers maintained a conservative marketing approach in the second quarter as well, despite the strong performance of the memory business, due to sluggishness in the mobile and home appliance sectors,” adding, “We forecast second-quarter domestic gross profit at 109 billion won (+2.1%) and overseas gross profit at 381.1 billion won (+1.1%).”
By overseas region, despite a narrowing of the loss at the European subsidiary “IRIS,” he predicted that certain costs related to the transfer and reorganization of the European “Captive” business would continue to be incurred in the second quarter, following the first quarter.
Analyst Jeong stated, “In China, where the possibility of major advertisers withdrawing from the home appliance business has been raised, business contraction and workforce optimization are expected to continue.” He added, “The one-time labor cost issue stemming from the regular wage ruling appears to have been resolved in the first quarter, and combined with favorable exchange rate effects, we forecast second-quarter net income to increase by 25.3% year-over-year to 64.2 billion won.”
He projected this year’s consolidated gross profit and operating profit at 1.8954 trillion won (+1.9%) and 334.9 billion won (-0.6%), respectively. He added, “The impact of the North and Central American World Cup on the domestic advertising market was minimal. Despite steady growth in the U.S. (+5.5%) and Central and South America (+10.1%), overseas operations are expected to maintain revenue and profit at last year’s levels due to sluggish performance in Europe (+0.1%) and China (-4.7%).”