Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Investment Thesis and Target Price
Mirae Asset Securities has raised its Target Price for Samsung Electronics to 400,000 KRW (~$298.14 USD based on 1342 KRW/USD) from the previous 370,000 KRW (~$275.71 USD), representing an 8.1% increase. The Investment Rating is maintained at Buy. The valuation upward revision is driven by increased DRAM ASP forecasts for 2026F (+4.8%pt) and 2027F (+0.3%pt). However, the brokerage adjusted the 12-month forward (12MF) calculation range from 2Q27 to 3Q27 and lowered operating profit (OP) estimates for 2026F and 2027F by 5.7% and 4.2%, respectively, to reflect the impact of a declining exchange rate (adjusted from 1,553 KRW to 1,400 KRW per USD).
Earnings Estimates and Financial Preview
The company’s operating profit is estimated at 105.7 trillion KRW (~$78.76B USD) for 3Q26F, 117.7 trillion KRW (~$87.70B USD) for 4Q26F, and 535.7 trillion KRW (~$399.25B USD) for the full year 2027F. DRAM ASP is projected to continue its upward trend, increasing by 16.5% in 3Q26F, 5.4% in 4Q26F, and 22.6% in 2027F compared to the previous period. While the price increase for general-purpose DRAM is expected to moderate in 2027, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is expected to drive the overall DRAM increase with a bit growth (B/G) of +57% (vs. +16% for general-purpose) and an ASP increase of +49% (vs. +20% for general-purpose).
Key Semiconductor Drivers and Outlook
The report highlights HBM advancement as the key to maintaining memory hegemony. The launch of GPT-6 Astra increases bandwidth demand per token due to larger context windows, a bottleneck that OpenAI’s ASIC ‘Jalapeno’ addresses by utilizing HBM4 to secure 216GiB capacity and 15.4TB/s bandwidth. To combat I/O power increases during generation shifts, custom HBM—which moves the memory controller to the base die using logic processes—is being considered, similar to NVIDIA’s NVHBM. Samsung has introduced zHBM, which aims for a 70% reduction in I/O power and over 2.3x the bandwidth compared to HBM5 by placing DRAM directly on the XPU. The shift toward base die manufacturing and wafer bonding as primary means to increase bandwidth is expected to increase the leadership and influence of memory manufacturers.
🔗 Original Source: View the official filing/article here.