On April 27, Hana finance securities raised its share price estimate for POSCO to 270000 won ($220.33) a share, and advised investors to continue to "buy.".
According to the analysis of Hanya Financial Securities researcher, POSCO began to carry out blast furnace maintenance and promote the modernization of hot-rolled steel plate plant after the middle of February, resulting in a decrease in sales. However, the operating profit of POSCO's steel business in the first quarter was higher than the market's expectation of 380.1 billion won (US $311 million), which was 458.1 billion won (US $374 million), mainly due to the lower cost of raw materials including coking coal.
Because novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is spreading all over the world, Pohang iron and steel industry has cut the target of crude steel output from 36 million 700 thousand tons to 34 million 100 thousand tons this year, reducing the target of product sales from 35 million tons to 32 million 400 thousand tons, and expects 7 million 340 thousand sales of second tons of products in the second quarter. At the same time, POSCO plans to flexibly adjust the subsequent production and sales arrangements, further reduce costs and adjust investment priorities. Researchers at Hanya financial securities predicted that despite the grim situation, POSCO's profitability in the second half of the year will increase, and predicted that China's steel prices will rise after mid May.
It is novel coronavirus pneumonia, which is a Pohang stock exchange, which announced that in April 10th, the 1 trillion steel won ($817 million) share repurchase program was announced to enhance its ability to cope with the new crown pneumonia risk and enhance shareholder value. This measure uses surplus funds, so it will not change the dividend policy of POSCO.
