[Edaily Reporter Shin Ha-yeon ] On the 21st, Shinhan Investment Securities assessed that SeAHHoldings(058650)is seeing its first-half operating profit and net income approach last year’s full-year levels, while simultaneously raising earnings estimates and strengthening shareholder returns. The firm maintained its “Buy” rating and target price of 200,000 won. This represents an upside potential of 55.8% compared to the previous trading day’s closing price of 128,400 won.

Park Gwang-rae, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Securities, stated, “With first-half operating profit of 155.7 billion won and net income of 74.9 billion won, the company achieved results similar to its 2025 full-year levels of 175.5 billion won in operating profit and 64.6 billion won in net income,” adding, “Earnings estimates are being raised while shareholder returns are being strengthened simultaneously.”

SeAHHoldings’ second-quarter revenue rose 19.3% year-over-year to 2.0236 trillion won, while operating profit surged 119.9% to 98 billion won. Operating profit has continued to grow year-over-year for four consecutive quarters.

The strong performance was largely driven by improved results from the special steel subsidiaries. SeAH Besteel Holdings Corporation’s consolidated operating profit for the second quarter rose 35.9% year-over-year to 60.5 billion won. Of this, SeAH Changwon Special Steel accounted for more than half, with its operating profit surging 81.7% to 34.4 billion won.

Analyst Park explained, “This result reflects the combined effects of investment in semiconductor equipment driven by AI data centers, expanding demand for STS in the energy and power generation sectors, and price hikes,” adding, “SeAH Steel’s operating profit rose only 11.5% to 24.6 billion won, while SeAH Aerospace & Defense Materials saw a 4.5% decline to 6.3 billion won due to rising aluminum prices.”

The return to normal operations at SeAH M&S also contributed significantly to the earnings surprise. Analysts estimate that the majority of the 37.5 billion won in second-quarter operating profit—excluding SeAH Besteel Holdings Corporation—was generated by SeAH M&S. SeAH M&S’s first-half operating profit totaled 50.4 billion won, marking a significant improvement from the 1.9 billion won loss recorded in the same period last year.

Analyst Park assessed, “Even when conservatively factoring in M&S’s volatility, it is possible to achieve operating profit in the range of the high 200 billion won to low 300 billion won in 2026.”

However, he noted that SeAH M&S’s profitability in the second half is likely to be lower than in the first half. Analyst Park explained, “As bargaining power in the molybdenum market is shifting toward upstream mining companies, it will be difficult to maintain the same level of profitability in the second half as in the first,” and projected SeAH M&S’s operating profit for this year at 95.2 billion won, a 114.3% increase year-over-year.

Strengthened shareholder returns were also highlighted as an investment point. Following the cancellation of 71,000 shares last April, SeAHHoldings canceled an additional 187,000 shares this month. As a result, the number of outstanding shares decreased from 4,313,000 to 4,055,000. This means the company has executed 83% of its three-year share cancellation plan in the first year.

Net income for the first half of the year on a standalone basis also reached 65.2 billion won, significantly surpassing last year’s full-year net income of 25.2 billion won. Shinhan Investment Securities therefore concluded that there is considerable room to further increase the dividend per share (DPS). The projected DPS for this year is 6,000 won, which is 39.5% higher than last year’s 4,300 won.

Analyst Park explained, “We maintain our ‘Buy’ rating and target price of 200,000 won,” adding, “Despite the upward revision to earnings estimates, we have lowered our expectations for Bestil Holdings compared to previous projections, so the target price remains unchanged.” He further emphasized, “Stand-alone net income also surged to 65.2 billion won in the first half compared to 25.2 billion won in 2025, indicating strong potential for a DPS increase.”