“Samsung Electronics at 190,000 won and SK hynix at 900,000 won are the bottom” ... Expert says not to cut losses: “Buy more at this point”

[Financial News] With Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares undergoing a correction, some are arguing that investors should delay additional purchases rather than hastily cut losses on their existing holdings.
Park Se-ik, CEO of Chesley Investment Advisory, appeared in a video posted on the Builgnam TV YouTube channel on the 1st, titled “Don’t sell just because you’re underwater on Samsung and Hynix; they’ll recover their highs when ‘this’ happens,” and offered advice on investing amid the recent market downturn.
He said that applying price-to-book ratios (PBRs) at past lows to next year’s projected book value per share (BPS) suggests Samsung Electronics could fall to around 190,000 won and SK hynix to around 900,000 won. However, this is a scenario based on assumed market conditions, not a definitive price target.

In the video, Park said foreign investors had been net sellers of domestic stocks on a large scale, with a substantial share of their sales concentrated in semiconductors. He said foreign investors tend to sell shares when semiconductor companies’ earnings are at record highs and buy again when market pessimism deepens.
Park cited PBR as an indicator for gauging the downside for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix shares. Assuming Samsung Electronics’ BPS this year is around 110,000 won and its share price is 370,000 won, its PBR would be about 3.5 times. Given that Samsung Electronics’ PBR historically ranged from 1.1 to 2.1 times, he said the current share price reflects considerable expectations.
For SK hynix, assuming a BPS of around 500,000 won and a share price of 3 million won this year would put its PBR at about six times. Citing the company’s historical PBR range of 0.9 to 1.6 times, Park stressed that investors should consider both net asset value and past valuations.
He said net asset value supported SK hynix’s share price on the downside even in 2023, when the company recorded a loss of about 9 trillion won. In other words, even if earnings worsen, the value of the company’s assets could prevent its share price from plunging to the same levels as in the past.
Park projected SK hynix’s BPS for next year at 1 million won and said that applying a PBR of 0.9 times would mean its share price could fall to around 900,000 won. However, he did not recommend a strategy of selling at a loss whenever the share price falls and then buying back at a lower price. His reasoning was that investors who are afraid to buy when the share price is 1.2 million won may find it even harder to buy decisively if it falls to 900,000 won.

Park explained that earnings and share prices in the semiconductor sector do not necessarily move in the same direction. Citing past instances when SK hynix shares rose despite the company recording steep losses, he said earnings could also deteriorate when a share price is near its bottom.
“Semiconductor demand doesn’t decline, so the sector breaks past its previous highs again every three or four years,” Park said. “Because supply causes prices to rise and fall, semiconductor prices and share prices fluctuate. So, after three or four years, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will both break past their highs.” He advised investors not to cut their losses.
He also suggested holding onto cash rather than making additional purchases immediately. While semiconductor shares are taking time to recover, he said investors could seek returns by investing in other sectors, such as shipbuilding, defense, nuclear power, skin-care aesthetics and entertainment, or in the KOSPI 200 and KOSDAQ 150 indices. The strategy would then be to buy more semiconductor stocks around the second half of 2027.
Risks facing the semiconductor industry include expanding production capacity among Chinese memory makers and funding problems at neo-cloud companies. If China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), among others, increase production, pressure from supply in the conventional memory market could intensify. And if neo-cloud companies have less capacity to invest, that could affect investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, he said.
However, Park stressed that conventional memory and the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market should be considered separately. He forecast that while conventional memory faces concerns about slowing demand and growing supply, specialty memory such as HBM could remain in short supply through 2028–2029 because of big tech companies’ investment in AI infrastructure. He said expanded long-term supply agreements (LTAs) could also reduce earnings volatility for memory companies.
“When we talk about HBM, we call it specialty memory. Big tech companies in the United States and China are continuing to invest aggressively in it, so supply shortages could persist,” Park said. “Even if prices remain stable only in the HBM segment, the noise around the semiconductor cycle will ease,” he predicted.

Park predicted that foreign investors could start buying semiconductor stocks again when earnings shocks and market pessimism intensify. He said foreign investors could begin accumulating shares if Samsung Electronics falls to around 210,000 won and SK hynix reaches a range of 900,000 to 1.2 million won.
For Samsung Electronics, an estimated BPS of 170,000 won at the end of next year, multiplied by a PBR of 1.1 times—the level seen at past lows—works out to a share price of about 187,000 won. On that basis, he cited around 190,000 won as a potential downside level. For SK hynix, he presented around 900,000 won, calculated by applying a PBR of 0.9 times to next year’s BPS of 1 million won, as a downside scenario.
He advised investors to keep some cash available for additional purchases rather than investing all their cash now, in case semiconductor shares fall further. He said they should watch for a period when brokerages’ price-target cuts, earnings shocks and worsening investor sentiment coincide. Park identified the second half of 2027 as the time to make additional purchases.
[email protected] Kim Hee-sun Reporter