[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] SKSecurities announced on the 29th that it is maintaining its “Buy” investment rating and target price of 1.85 million won for SKSQUARE(402340).

Choi Kwan-soon, an analyst at SKSecurities, stated, “SKSQUARE’s shareholder return resources are expanding due to increased cash dividends from SK hynix, which accounts for approximately 98% of SKSQUARE’s net asset value (NAV), and its controlling stake is being strengthened through SK hynix’s share buybacks and cancellations,” adding “During a conference call the previous day, SK hynix revealed that virtually all of its DRAM and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) production volumes are sold out through 2029, making a stock price rebound highly likely. We can expect SKSQUARE’s stock price to rise in tandem with SK hynix’s rebound,” he added.
Currently, SKSQUARE trades at a 46.5% discount to its NAV, and if SK hynix cancels 60 trillion won worth of treasury stock, the discount will rise to 49.4%.
The day before, SK hynix announced it would pay a third-quarter dividend of 20,000 won per share. SKSQUARE will receive 2.922 trillion won in dividend income. Analyst Choi explained, “SK hynix has announced that its total cash dividends for 2026 will amount to ‘over 30 trillion won.’ Since the dividends paid through the third quarter total 14.6 trillion won, a dividend of at least 20,000 won per share is expected in the fourth quarter as well,” adding, “In this case, SKSQUARE’s dividend income for 2026 will reach 6 trillion won.”
He further emphasized, “SKSQUARE has a shareholder return policy of returning at least 30% of its ordinary dividend income to shareholders from 2026 to 2028, so SKSQUARE’s shareholder return rate for 2027—based on its current market capitalization—is projected to be at least 1.5%.”
In addition, SK hynix announced a 20 trillion won share buyback. Of this amount, 10 trillion won is intended for employee compensation, and 10 trillion won is for shareholder returns. Since the company plans to acquire and cancel a total of more than 60 trillion won worth of treasury shares in 2026—excluding those purchased for employee compensation—an additional acquisition of more than 10 trillion won worth of treasury shares is expected after the 2026 financial results are finalized.
He added, “Following the 10 trillion won share buyback and cancellation announced this time, SKSQUARE’s ownership stake will reach 21.4 percent; if an additional 10 trillion won worth of shares are canceled, the ownership stake will rise to 21.7 percent.”