SK Hynix shares dropped 5.2% to $188.30 on Thursday, retreating from a prior close of $198.63 and just below its 52-week high of $199.87. The decline came amid a broad selloff in memory and high-beta technology stocks, triggered by rising oil prices and renewed inflation and interest-rate concerns. Micron and SanDisk were also pulled lower.
On the same day, JPMorgan initiated coverage on SK Hynix with an Overweight rating and a $245 price target set for June 2027. The bank based its target on a 20% ADR premium to the local share price and a multiple of seven times average EPS for fiscal 2026 to 2027. JPMorgan expects a 34% EPS compound annual growth rate over the next two years and a total shareholder return yield of nearly 42% from 2026 to 2028.
Analyst support remains strong. The consensus price target across 14 analysts is $247.67, with four Strong Buy, nine Buy, and one Hold rating. Citigroup upgraded the stock to Strong Buy on September 2, while Cantor Fitzgerald and Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage in early August with $300 and $240 targets, respectively. Royal Bank of Canada set a $200 target, UBS a $204 target, Barclays an Overweight with a $300 target, and Needham raised its target to $220 after SK Hynix approved a share buyback plan valued at 40 trillion Korean won. JPMorgan highlighted a trailing P/E of 7.09, gross profit margins of 76%, and more than 50% of capacity locked in through long-term agreements.
Separately, Micron Technology announced record fiscal 2026 rewards for Taiwan employees, including bonuses equivalent to 35 to 68 months of pay and minimum cash compensation of NT$1.7 million, roughly $53,028.88. Entry-level engineers in Taiwan will average total rewards of NT$3.4 million, about $106,057.76. More than 60,000 employees globally will receive fiscal 2026 rewards. The payouts come as unions representing about two-thirds of Micron’s Taiwan workforce signaled support for a strike over bonus structure changes.
Samsung Electronics also faced a compensation dispute this year, with more than 45,000 workers threatening the largest strike in the conglomerate’s history in May. A government-mediated agreement ended the dispute, providing chip workers a regular cash bonus of 50% of annual salary and a special stock bonus pool equal to 10.5% of operating profit. SK Hynix reached a tentative wage agreement under which at least 60% of this year’s bonuses would be paid in stock, with 40% in cash and 20% as deferred stock compensation, alongside a 6.3% base wage increase.
The Bank of Korea has flagged the unusually large IT-sector bonuses as a potential inflation concern, warning that exceptional payouts could spread into broader wage growth and housing demand. South Korea’s nominal GDP surged 21.9% in the first half of 2026 compared with a year earlier, driven largely by semiconductor export prices.
