SK Hynix's Rollercoaster Week Ends With a Limit-Up — But the Underlying Story Is More Complicated
Published on 08/01/2026 at 13:32 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The numbers coming out of SK Hynix's second quarter were, by any conventional measure, spectacular. Revenue of 79.32 trillion won, operating profit of 60.5 trillion won, and an operating margin of 76 percent — all company records. Profit surged 557 percent year over year. Yet when the South Korean memory chip giant published those figures, the market's response was anything but celebratory. Shares tumbled sharply midweek before staging a historic recovery on Friday, when the stock hit its daily trading limit with a 29.95 percent gain to close at 1,718,000 won — the first limit-up session since 2009.
The whiplash tells a richer story than either the record earnings or the dramatic rebound alone. For one, the company missed its own guidance. Analysts had penciled in operating profit of roughly 64 trillion won, and the shortfall — attributed to temporary delivery delays on certain high-bandwidth memory products — exposed how elevated expectations had become in the AI chip trade. Revenue also came in below the consensus figure of around 84 trillion won.
A Chairman's Vote of Confidence
Amid the turbulence, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won made an unusual move. On July 30, he purchased 3,620 SK Hynix shares on the open market for approximately 4.79 billion won, at the then-closing price of 1,322,000 won. It marked the first time he had bought the company's stock directly in the open market, raising his stake to 20.00 percent. The timing — coinciding with both the record quarterly results and a court ruling ordering a payment of 944 billion won to Roh Soh-yeong — added another layer of intrigue to an already eventful week.
The Cash Buffer That Changed the Narrative
By Friday, investor attention had shifted from the earnings miss to the balance sheet. SK Hynix ended the quarter with cash reserves of 88 trillion won, up 33.6 trillion won from the previous quarter, translating to a net cash position of 69.4 trillion won. That liquidity cushion gives the company substantial firepower for its expansion agenda, which includes a confirmed capital expenditure budget of at least $31 billion — roughly 48 trillion won — for 2026. CEO Kwak Noh-jung has warned of a potential "memory crisis" in 2027, predicting the most severe supply shortage in the industry's history, and the investment is earmarked for accelerating construction at the Yongin and Cheongju manufacturing clusters.
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The company's financial flexibility was bolstered further by its Nasdaq listing of American Depositary Receipts in early July, which raised $26.5 billion — the largest haul ever for a foreign company listing in the United States. Proceeds are designated for next-generation manufacturing infrastructure and advanced lithography equipment.
Analyst Caution Persists Despite the Rally
The rebound has not swayed several prominent analysts. Barclays trimmed its price target from $330 to $300 while maintaining an Overweight rating, citing SK Hynix's strong position in high-bandwidth memory and an expected supply tightening through 2027 that should only partially ease in 2028. Meanwhile, analysts at Simply Wall St revised their fair value estimate downward to 3,179,719 won from 3,408,502 won, reflecting a reduced revenue growth assumption of 44.08 percent versus the prior 63.49 percent.
A more pointed concern comes from UBS, which projects that Samsung will overtake SK Hynix in the HBM market by 2027, capturing 41 percent share versus SK Hynix's 39 percent, while Micron holds steady at 20 percent. For now, SK Hynix leads with 48 percent share in 2026. The anticipated shift stems from Samsung's earlier mass production of the next-generation HBM4, which doubles the number of I/O channels to 2,048. SK Hynix is responding with investments in the region of 40 trillion won and has locked in roughly ten long-term supply agreements with US hyperscalers.
A Market Still Finding Its Footing
The broader backdrop remains favorable for Korean memory exporters. South Korea's July exports hit $98.89 billion, up 62.8 percent year over year — the second-highest monthly figure ever recorded — with semiconductor exports surging 178.8 percent to $41.01 billion. A $500 billion memory supply deal between Nvidia and SK Hynix, seen as part of a broader consolidation wave in the AI chip sector, added further momentum.
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Yet Friday's trading revealed how fragile sentiment remains beneath the surface. Retail investors sold a record net 10.38 trillion won in shares, while foreign investors bought a net 8.77 trillion won, including 3.59 trillion won in SK Hynix alone. Regulators also tightened rules for leveraged single-stock ETFs, raising the minimum deposit from 10 million to 30 million won.
The stock still sits 42.48 percent below its June record high of 2,987,000 won, and on a weekly basis it closed down 2.33 percent. But technical indicators suggest stabilization: the RSI of 44.7 has exited oversold territory, and the price has reclaimed its 100-day moving average of 1,681,145 won, though it remains roughly 20.74 percent below the 50-day average. Year to date, the shares are still up 164.43 percent — a reminder that even a brutal correction has done little to erase the AI-fueled gains that defined the first half of the year.
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