HYBE’s Stock Rebound Weakens Due to Negative Earnings Outlook and Suga’s DUI Incident

On this day, HYBE closed at 183,800 won, up 2,300 won (1.27%) from the previous day.

The stock opened with a decline of -1.49% and at one point fell as much as -4.08%, but later rebounded to maintain a flat trend before increasing slightly just before the market closed.

However, the rebound was much smaller than the 5.89% increase seen the previous day.

HYBE experienced a 5.92% drop on August 5th during a market crash but recovered slightly on August 6th with a 0.76% increase, followed by a stronger rebound due to low-price buying on the previous day.

However, on this day, Hana Securities lowered its target price for HYBE from 315,000 won to 300,000 won, citing a limited rebound momentum for HYBE’s third-quarter earnings.

They predicted that HYBE’s operating profit for the third quarter would be only 56.4 billion won, falling short of the consensus estimate of 70.2 billion won.

HYBE’s second-quarter earnings, announced the previous day, showed record-high quarterly revenue of 640.5 billion won on a consolidated basis, but operating profit fell 37.4% year-on-year to 50.9 billion won due to losses in new business ventures.

Additionally, news broke the previous day about BTS’s Suga (real name Min Yoon-gi), who is currently serving as a public service worker, being involved in a DUI incident with an electric scooter.

Suga was found alone after falling off an electric scooter on a street in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul at around 11:27 PM on August 6th.

After being discovered by nearby police officers, a breathalyzer test revealed a blood alcohol concentration at a license revocation level (over 0.08%).

Initially, Suga and his agency Big Hit Music explained in their first apology that the incident involved an “electric kickboard”, but it was later confirmed that it was actually an electric scooter, leading to criticism that they may have attempted to downplay the incident.