Kiwoom Securities maintained its target price for Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), the world's largest memory chipmaker, while projecting first-quarter operating profit of 4.3 trillion won ($3.1 billion). The brokerage said Google's TurboQuant technology, which has recently driven share price volatility among memory chipmakers, could actually be a positive factor for Samsung's stock.
In a report published Wednesday, Kiwoom Securities forecast Samsung Electronics' first-quarter revenue at 12.5 trillion won and operating profit at 4.3 trillion won. That represents year-on-year increases of 34% and 115%, respectively, and exceeds consensus estimates. Kiwoom maintained its target price of 260,000 won and "buy" rating.
"We believe rush orders for mobile memory products will push price increases for mobile DRAM and NAND above expectations," the report said. "While the foundry business will continue to post operating losses, new customer wins and product orders for 4-nanometer and 2-nanometer nodes are increasing, raising the visibility of a return to operating profit in the second half."
Second-quarter earnings are also expected to grow on rising shipments of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is essential for artificial intelligence development. Kiwoom projected Samsung's second-quarter revenue at 13.6 trillion won and operating profit at 5.7 trillion won. Analysts noted that increased sales of next-generation HBM4 to Nvidia could drive further earnings growth. HBM carries higher profit margins compared to commodity memory products.
Kiwoom Securities said Google's TurboQuant could actually present an opportunity for Samsung Electronics. "Both Google's TurboQuant and Nvidia's KVTC technologies are negative factors for the 2027-2029 demand outlook for server DRAM and eSSD," analyst Park Yu-ak at Kiwoom Securities said. "However, since the decompression process after on-loading requires additional computing by GPU and TPU-HBM, this could be an opportunity for Samsung Electronics — which holds a technological edge in HBM4 — to expand its HBM market share."
