SK Hynix Delivers Historic Profit, but the Market Wanted Even More
Published on 07/29/2026 at 18:05 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The math of modern markets can be brutal: a 557% surge in operating profit, a 257% revenue jump, and a net income figure that soared more than 1,200% — yet SK Hynix shares cratered 9.61% on Wednesday. The South Korean chipmaker posted its best-ever quarterly results, but the numbers landed just shy of the sky-high expectations baked into the stock, triggering a sell-off that rippled across Seoul's broader market.
The company reported second-quarter operating profit of 60.54 trillion won on revenue of 79.32 trillion won. Analysts had been looking for operating profit closer to 64 trillion won and revenue as high as 84 trillion won. That gap — between record-breaking and consensus-beating — proved wide enough to spark a rout. Net profit came in at 93.92 trillion won, though that figure was juiced by a one-time gain of 63.27 trillion won from the sale of SK Hynix's stake in Kioxia.
A Market in Meltdown Mode
The sell-off in SK Hynix was part of a broader panic gripping South Korean equities. The Kospi index tumbled 5.98% on Wednesday to 5,663.24 points, triggering a trading halt for the second consecutive day. Over two sessions, the benchmark has shed roughly 16% of its value. Since its June 19 peak, the Kospi has lost nearly 40%, and the July decline alone — 31.8% — now exceeds the monthly drawdowns seen during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.
Samsung Electronics wasn't spared either, sliding more than 5% as the sell-off spread. South Korean lawmakers convened an emergency meeting, with some pointing to recently introduced leveraged single-stock products as a factor amplifying the downturn.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying SK Hynix?
For SK Hynix specifically, the stock now trades 53.10% below its all-time high from June 25, when shares changed hands at 2,987,000 won. The 14-day relative strength index has fallen to 33.2, a level that typically signals oversold conditions.
HBM4 Deliveries Miss the Mark
The disappointment traces back to the company's next-generation memory chips. Analysts attributed the revenue shortfall to lower-than-expected shipments of HBM4, the latest high-bandwidth memory product that is critical to AI data center builds. SK Hynix began mass production of HBM4 in the second quarter and plans to ramp output in the second half of the year, but some revenue recognition has been pushed into later quarters.
The company's pricing power remains formidable: average selling prices for DRAM rose 30% quarter-over-quarter, while NAND flash prices climbed roughly 50%. Those gains helped push first-half revenue past 100 trillion won for the first time in the company's history.
China Competition Adds to the Gloom
Investor anxiety got an extra jolt from an unexpected direction. Chinese memory maker CXMT completed its initial public offering in Shanghai, raising approximately $9.8 billion, according to reports from the South China Morning Post. The listing stoked fears that cheaper Chinese alternatives could eventually squeeze margins at established players like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, even as the AI-driven demand cycle remains robust.
Analysts Split on What Comes Next
The analyst community is wrestling with sharply divergent views. DS Investment & Securities maintains a bullish 3.1 million won price target, signaling confidence in the long-term HBM story. But others have turned cautious: BNK Investment Securities slashed its target to 1.48 million won, while Mirae Asset cut its estimate from 4.2 million to 2.8 million won. The concerns center on whether the massive AI-related capital spending by cloud hyperscalers is sustainable, and whether the industry is building toward overcapacity.
SK Hynix pushed back against those fears in its earnings call. President Song Hyun-jong described robust customer demand, with buyers continuing to ask for more memory. The company has locked in roughly 10 long-term supply agreements, typically spanning three to five years, some backed by customer prepayments.
Record Investment Plans Signal Confidence
Despite the stock's slide, SK Hynix is doubling down on spending. Capital expenditure for the current year is expected to reach the high end of a 40 trillion won range — a record, and a significant jump from the 30.2 trillion won spent in 2025. The company is accelerating construction at its M15X facility and plans to expand capacity after the first clean room phase at its Yongin site opens in early 2027.
SK Hynix at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
On the product roadmap, SK Hynix confirmed that samples of the next-generation HBM4E have already been shipped to customers, with mass production targeted for 2027. For the third quarter, the company guided for DRAM shipments to rise roughly 10% sequentially, while NAND growth is expected to be in the low single digits.
The Missing Piece: Shareholder Returns
One area where SK Hynix failed to deliver was on capital allocation. The company told investors it could not yet specify the timing, size, or structure of any future payout policy, saying only that a concrete plan would be presented later this year. For a stock that has lost more than half its value in just over a month, the lack of clarity on shareholder returns added to the frustration.
The question hanging over SK Hynix now is whether the fundamental story — surging AI demand, pricing power, and long-term supply contracts — can reassert itself over the market's mood. With annualized 30-day volatility at 123.55%, the stock is likely to remain hypersensitive to every new data point on AI investment and memory pricing in the weeks ahead.
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SK Hynix Stock: New Analysis - 29 July
Fresh SK Hynix information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
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