[Edaily Reporter Shin Ha-yeon ] NHN(181710)is surging for the second consecutive day, buoyed by its record-breaking second-quarter earnings and a series of target price hikes by securities firms.

According to MP Doctor on the 12th, as of 9:19 a.m., NHN is trading at 60,600 won, up 11.81% from the previous trading day. The stock had already closed at its daily upper limit the previous day on news that both second-quarter revenue and operating profit had reached record highs for a single quarter.

Today, the stock appears to be gaining further momentum from the securities industry’s assessment that the growth potential of its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and cloud business will lead to substantial improvements in earnings.

Shinhan Investment Securities raised NHN’s target price by 40%, from 45,000 won to 63,000 won. Kang Seok-oh, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Securities, stated, “The company has entered the final stages of its restructuring and has demonstrated the growth potential of its NeoCloud business,” adding, “We expect market interest and the stock price rally to continue as NHN becomes the first in Korea to monetize its AI Factory.”

In particular, the firm highlighted that NHN Cloud’s revenue grew 85% year-over-year following the start of NVIDIA B200 supply at the Yangpyeong region. Reflecting higher-than-expected AI data center prices and margins, as well as the rapid pace of revenue generation, the firm raised its operating profit estimates for this year and next year by 19.1% and 19.8%, respectively.

On the same day, NH INVESTMENT & SECURITIES also raised its target price by 29.6% from 54,000 won to 70,000 won and maintained its “Buy” rating. It also raised this year’s AI data center revenue estimate by 25%, from 80 billion won to 100 billion won.

Ahn Jae-min, an analyst at NH INVESTMENT & SECURITIES, said, “The outstanding profitability of the cloud business, as confirmed in the second-quarter results, is expected to continue for the time being,” adding, “As the only domestic neo-cloud provider currently generating substantial revenue, a revaluation of the company is anticipated.” He continued, “Given the nature of the cloud business, revenue growth is expected to lead to a steep operating leverage effect.”

NHN announced yesterday that it recorded consolidated second-quarter revenue of 757.9 billion won and operating profit of 57.9 billion won. These figures represent year-over-year increases of 25.3% and 164.1%, respectively, marking record highs for both revenue and operating profit on a quarterly basis. In particular, revenue from the technology segment—which includes the artificial intelligence (AI) graphics processing unit (GPU) business—rose 52.9% to 159.8 billion won, while NHN Cloud’s revenue also surged 85.3%, driven by the full-scale rollout of NVIDIA B200-based GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS).