After Korea's Q3 results, brokers cut 19 target prices and raised 5. All 135 new targets sit above the share price

Korea’s third-quarter reporting week is over. SK hynix reported on Wednesday 28 October, Samsung Electronics on Thursday 29 October, and the KOSPI swung with them: +6.64% to 6,012.44 on Wednesday, −1.24% on Thursday, then −3.48% to 5,730.74 on Friday, according to Korean wire reports.

Before the results, we counted the targets brokers set going in (the earnings-week preview). This is the other half: what the same brokers wrote after the numbers came out.

What we counted

We took the 24 companies on The Asia Business Daily’s calendar that reported from Monday to Thursday, and every broker report on them dated after their results day, up to Friday 30 October. That is 138 reports from 13 brokers. Where the same broker had set a target earlier in our archive, we compared the two.

Of the 56 reports we could compare, a third were cuts. The 19 cuts averaged −19.4%. The five raises ran from +8.1% to +11.1%.

Day by day

Tuesday’s reporters took more than half of all the cuts. Five of them landed on HD Hyundai Electric alone (the cuts one by one).

Company by company

Median of the targets published after results, and that median divided by the 29 October close.

Where a row shows fewer than its report count across the three columns, the rest were brokers with no earlier target in our archive.

One thing did not move

All 135 targets published after results were above the 29 October share price. The lowest, Mirae Asset’s 190,000 won on LG Electronics, was 1.22 times the price. The median was 1.58 times. 29 were at least double. The highest was Hana Securities’ 550,000 won on OCI Holdings, 3.05 times the price.

Of the 138 reports, 135 said Buy. One said Neutral (Shinhan Securities on Hanwha Systems, with no target), and two gave no rating. The pattern is not new: in the Hankyung Consensus list we counted before results, all 42 rated reports on these companies were Buy, and over twelve years Korean brokers have issued very few Sell calls.

Friday’s four: not measured yet

Kia, APR, Hyundai E&C and Hyundai Mobis reported on Friday 30 October, and no report on them dated after that is in our archive yet. Kia was the day’s largest move: Hankyung reported operating profit of 1.82 trillion won, 22.9% below the brokers’ consensus of 2.36 trillion, and the shares closing at 95,600 won, down 11.73%. Before results, Kia’s six firms in our file had a median target of 167,500 won (Kia and Mobis before results). What brokers do next we will count when the reports arrive.

How to read this

A target is one broker’s 12-month price figure. A gap of 1.58 times means the median target is 58% above the price, not that the price will go there. Korean brokers’ targets have been met about one time in five in our earlier count. The same gap shows across the whole market: on 29 October, none of 315 Korean companies traded above its median target.

Statistics, not advice. This counts what brokers published; it is not a view on any company.

Related: SK hynix after a record quarter · Samsung Electronics: record profit, shares down 4.1% · Korean chip stocks’ target prices · shipbuilding · defense · batteries. More from the same data: Before results: 28 companies, 46 reports · October: more cuts than raises, still Buy · which brokers cut and which held in October · Korean quarterly dividends: how the record date works.