Inside SK Hynix: The Mixed Signals That Have the Stock Stuck Just Below Record Highs

Shinhan Securities raises SK Hynix target to 3.8M won, nearly double current price, but $19.6T won foreign selling caps gains. Stock near 52-week high as HBM demand backs bullish outlook.

Shinhan Securities sees a path to 3.8 million won for SK Hynix — more than double its previous target and nearly double the current share price. But a $19.6 trillion won wall of foreign selling is testing whether that optimism can translate into immediate gains. The stock closed Friday at 1,941,000 won, a mere 1.77% shy of its 52-week high of 1,976,000 won, yet the session delivered only a 0.05% advance. The market is sending contradictory signals.

Between May 7 and May 22, overseas investors offloaded SK Hynix shares worth 19.6 trillion won. Together with Samsung Electronics, which saw 18.9 trillion won in foreign exits, the two chipmakers accounted for more than 83% of all net foreign selling on the KOSPI. Analysts attribute the exodus to profit-taking after a ferocious rally: SK Hynix has surged 186.71% year to date. Even with that selling pressure, the stock still managed a weekly gain of 6.71%.

Shinhan analyst Kim Hyeong-tae argues the fundamental case is too strong to ignore. The brokerage now projects an operating profit of 26.69 trillion won for 2026 and 40.58 trillion won for 2027, driven by persistent shortages in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM, and NAND chips. "SK Hynix is outperforming North American peers in earnings growth," Kim wrote, and the tight supply of AI memory chips is expected to last until at least 2027. That timeline underpins the new target price of 3.8 million won.

Technical indicators suggest the stock is in a delicate zone. The current price sits 54.93% above its 50-day moving average of 1,252,800 won. The relative strength index of 68.9 stops short of overbought territory but signals an extended run. Annualized 30-day volatility stands at 75.52%, a reminder that sentiment can turn abruptly even when the narrative remains intact. The key near-term hurdle is the 1.95 million won area; a clean break above it would open the path to the record high.

A separate gauge offers a bullish counterweight. The global depositary receipts (GDRs) of SK Hynix listed in Frankfurt carry a one-month average premium of 2.3% over the local shares, according to Meritz Securities. That premium reflects international investor conviction before the Asian session even opens, suggesting the foreign selling may be more tactical than structural.

For now, the stock is consolidating after last week's 11.17% spike on Wednesday. Friday's flat close looked less like a breakout and more like a breather. The real test will come when the current wave of foreign profit-taking subsides. If the analysts are right and the earnings trajectory holds, the record high may be just a first stop, not the final ceiling.