As KOSPI slid in October, Korean analysts cut more target prices than they raised — and still said Buy

The KOSPI fell for six straight sessions into mid-October, and by 14 October it was barely holding above 6,000. A week earlier, foreign investors had sold a net KRW 1.58 trillion of Korean stocks in a single day. The question for anyone reading Korean broker research is simple: did the analysts move with the market?

We counted every report in a 31-day window of Korean broker research, 22 September to 23 October 2026. They moved, but only in one of the two ways they could have.

Cuts overtook raises in October

Of 728 reports, 218 list both a new target price and the previous one, so the direction of each revision can be read straight off the page. Over the whole month, cuts edged out raises, 67 to 60, and 91 targets were left where they were.

The month did not move evenly. At the end of September raises led easily. By the third week of October the balance had flipped.

Some revisions in the list are very large, more than 25% in either direction, in 38 cases. A prior target can be months old, and a share split or similar change would distort the comparison; we did not check every case. So we counted again without those 38. Late September comes out at 5 raised and 3 cut, the last nine days at 17 raised and 24 cut. The flip survives.

The names being cut, and the ones still being raised

Four companies took four cuts each inside the month: LG Display, LS Electric, Hyundai Rotem and HYBE. A display maker, a power-equipment maker, a rail and defence manufacturer and a K-pop agency is not a single-sector story.

Revisions did not all go one way. Samsung E&A had its target raised five times, and Korean Air, Pan Ocean and Cosmax three times each.

What did not move: the rating

While the targets turned down, the ratings did not. In 728 reports there were 220 Buys, 51 more in Korean (“매수”), one Strong Buy, six Holds and no Sell, Reduce or Underperform at all. The two earlier windows we hold, covering August and September, also have no Sell.

That matches what we found when we counted twelve years of ratings: 89 Sell calls since 2014. When the market weakens, Korean analysts express it in the number, the target price, and almost never in the word. For a reader, that means the useful signal in a Korean report is the revision, not the rating.

What this count covers

This is one list, and the largest Korean brokers are not on it: the 12 publishers are mid-sized brokers, one bank and the Korea IR Service. The count says what this list did in a falling month. It does not say whether the cuts followed the market down or helped push it, and it says nothing about whether any single target is right.

Hankyung Consensus broker report list, 22 September–23 October 2026, collected 23 October 2026 at 10:23 KST. Directions are read from the listed target and prior target of each report. Not investment advice.