# Mr. A, an office worker who is investing tens of millions of won in the domestic stock market, is worried when he looks at the recent securities company report. This is because there are few places that raise their target stock prices, and those that lower them are much more noticeable. Mr. A said, “I am wondering if I should withdraw all my money from the domestic stock market.”
There has been a series of downward revisions in stock price targets by securities companies for listed companies. In Korea, there were a total of 270 securities reports suggesting target stock prices from the 23rd to the 25th. Of these, 99 had lower standards than before. The number of reports with downward adjustments to the target stock price is much higher than the number with upward adjustments (22). The rest is ‘no change’.
The general view among securities companies is that external negative factors such as the recent war between Israel and Palestine and a surge in U.S. Treasury yields have had an impact on the worsening performance. To make matters worse, this year’s performance forecasts for listed companies have been falling sharply recently. This is because the slump in demand is deeper than expected.
According to financial information company FnGuide, the total annual operating profit forecast for 2023 for 250 domestic listed companies with performance consensus (average of securities company estimates) was recently calculated to be KRW 152.9759 trillion. It fell 4.1% compared to three months ago, and fell 1.6% compared to one month ago.
This is having a negative impact on both large and small and medium-cap stocks. Samsung Electronics’ recently compiled operating profit consensus for this year was 7.2145 trillion won, down 21.6% from three months ago온라인카지노 and 5.4% from one month ago. The same goes for LG Chem (down 21.3%, then down 6.1%), POSCO Holdings (down 2.2%, down 4.4%), and LG Energy Solutions (down 13.4%, down 3.3%). The most recent operating profit consensus for six of the top 10 stocks in terms of market capitalization fell sequentially compared to three months ago and one month ago.
There are also observations that small and mid-cap stocks are experiencing more negative impacts. Kim Soo-yeon, a researcher at Hanwha Investment & Securities, said, “If you look at the third quarter alone, when the operating profit forecast for large-cap stocks fell 1.0% over the past month, small- and medium-cap stocks fell 8.3%.”
Initially, the general outlook among securities companies was that corporate performance was likely to bottom out this year and rebound next year. However, some point out that we cannot be at ease as forecasts for next year are being lowered one after another. According to FnGuide, the total operating profit estimate of 242 listed stocks with a consensus performance for next year rose 0.6% from 3 months ago to 1 month ago, but fell 2.9% from 1 month until recently.
Park Sang-hyeon, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, said, “This month, indices that serve as leading economic indicators, such as the Consumer Sentiment Index, Business Survey Index (BSI), and Economic Sentiment Index (ESI), are declining compared to the previous month, continuing a slowdown in trade.” “There is a high possibility that the balance of payments will turn into a deficit again this month, and the service industry economic trend is also weakening,” he said. He said, “It will be difficult for this year’s economy to show the ‘up and down’ trend that was originally expected.”
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