POSCO Future M (003670) 🔎 In-depth
KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
POSCO Future M is a company where cathode materials for EV and electronics batteries make up most of revenue, and it is effectively the only domestic producer that mass-manufactures synthetic-graphite anode materials, with a two-legged structure in which base materials such as needle coke and refractories made from steelmaking byproducts add steady cash. In March it signed a ₩1,014.9 billion contract (34.5% of recent annual revenue, supply 2027-2032) for synthetic-graphite anode materials with a global automaker, laid out a Vietnam capacity expansion and a 2027 revenue target of ₩8.3 trillion, and in Q1 2026 the recovery continued, filling half of last year's full-year operating profit in a single quarter. What stands out lately is that its unique anode mass-production capability, large long-term orders and expansion, and a P/B of 3.35x that is lower than peers on asset value are strengths, while two straight years of revenue decline and a 224.8% debt-to-equity ratio with a below-1x interest-coverage ratio are points to watch.
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30-second brief
Pulled directly from the computed values below — not a separately written opinion.
What do the SourceComputedEstimateReading tags mean?
Source filings and exchange data · Computed calculated from public data · Estimate our own unverified projection · Reading drafted automatically, then rule-checked. See AI & Automation.
Core valuation metric
This stock's effective sub-sector is “Cathode Materials” (Secondary Batteries · Battery Materials, Parts & Equipment), a type typically read first through EV/EBITDA.
Cathode materials carry heavy capacity expansion and depreciation, so looking at net income alone gets distorted by capex and capital structure. That makes EV/EBITDA — enterprise value against operating cash generation before depreciation — the first lens. But in a loss-making stretch, say from a slide in raw-material prices, that metric breaks down, so EV/Sales — enterprise value against revenue — steps in to size the business against its scale.
Price against earnings alone becomes unstable when earnings swing. Reading it together with price against assets helps gauge the downside.
This note explains how each sector is typically valued and is educational context only, not investment advice.
At-a-glance assessment financial health · growth · profitability · valuation
- Operating profit barely covers the interest bill (interest coverage below 1x).
- The most recent full-year net result was a loss.
- Revenue fell 20.6% year over year (3-year trend: falling).
- Net profit swung from a loss a year earlier back into the black (a turnaround).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 10.4% lower than a year earlier.
- ROE is -0.2% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
- Operating margin is 1.2%.
- A sector-metric and in-depth research verdict — see “Valuation vs peers” below for the basis.
Ownership & governance As of 2025-12-31
Largest shareholder POSCO Holdings 58.2% (corporate)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 60.6%
With the controlling bloc holding 61%, control is very secure but the free float is thin.
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
POSCO Future M makes the key materials that go into EV and electronics batteries. Its largest business is cathode materials, which act directly when a battery stores and releases energy, and they make up most of the company's revenue. The second pillar is anode materials, which hold the electric charge as a battery is charged, and the company is effectively the only domestic firm that mass-produces synthetic-graphite anode materials. Added to this, a base-materials business in needle coke and refractories, made from byproducts of the steelmaking process, underpins the whole as a long-standing cash generator. In short, EV-battery materials (cathode and anode) are the growth engine, while steel-affiliated base materials add steady cash, a two-legged structure.
The latest close is ₩147,500 and the market capitalization is ₩13.1 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩142,185) and below its 60-day moving average (₩183,417). Short-term and medium-term trends are diverging, so the direction is best read separately. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 47.7, a neutral level. The one-month change is -6.8%, the three-month change is -48.9%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -50.2%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 9 (on a 1-99 scale, converted from returns against the index over the past year with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market). It is stronger than roughly 8% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 40.7%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
On confirmed 2025 full-year results, the P/E ratio (how many times one year's net profit the price trades at) prints very high at 422.39x. But that is because 2025 net profit stayed at ₩32.3 billion in the early stage of the recovery, so this single snapshot is hard to use to gauge fair value. The forward P/E reflecting this year's results is also still high, because in a transition just off the bottom the profit in the denominator is still small. The P/B (how many times the company's net assets the price represents) is 3.17x, actually a lower position than leading cathode makers Ecopro BM (6.84x) and L&F (5.73x). ROE (how much it earns on equity in a year) is 0.8% and the operating margin is 1.1%, so the return on capital is still at an early-recovery level. Bringing debt in makes the picture heavier. Net borrowings (pure debt after subtracting cash from total borrowings) are ₩3.6 trillion, and EV/Sales (enterprise value divided by revenue) is 6.2x, a heavier burden than the P/S (4.66x) that measures price against revenue alone. The FCF yield (cash actually generated relative to market cap) is negative, because large capacity-expansion investment exceeds the cash it earns. Meanwhile Q1 2026 operating profit of ₩17.7 billion is half of 2025 full-year operating profit (₩32.8 billion) in a single quarter, so the profit trend itself is rising clearly off last year's bottom. In sum, on asset value (P/B) it sits below peers, while on the earnings multiple (P/E) the recovery still needs to fill in before it falls back to a normal range.
The top line is on a clear downtrend. Annual revenue fell for two straight years, from ₩4.8 trillion in 2023 to ₩3.7 trillion in 2024 and ₩2.9 trillion in 2025, and Q1 2026 revenue of ₩757.5 billion was also down 10.4% from a year earlier. Slowing sales of the mainstay cathode materials are the main reason for the top-line decline. Profit, by contrast, has turned up off the bottom. Operating profit all but vanished at ₩0.7 billion in 2024, recovered to ₩32.8 billion in 2025, and net profit swung from a ₩212.3 billion loss in 2024 to a ₩32.3 billion profit in 2025. In Q1 2026 operating profit rose year on year to ₩17.7 billion, filling half of last year's full-year figure in one quarter, showing the profit recovery continuing on a quarterly basis too (though net profit at ₩6.3 billion is choppy quarter to quarter due to non-operating items). The path ahead comes from two tracks the company has laid down. One is the ₩1 trillion-plus long-term anode-supply contract signed in March 2026, a new revenue base to fill the shrunken cathode top line. The other is investment to widen its production footprint through the Vietnam anode expansion. In line with this, the company has disclosed a mid-term target to grow revenue from ₩4.8 trillion in 2023 to ₩8.3 trillion in 2027. In sum, this year the cathode slowdown still weighs on the top line, but profit is past the bottom and recovering, while anode orders and expansion build the foundation for the next stage of growth.
The through-line of recent disclosures is 'offsetting the cathode slowdown with anodes.' On March 16, 2026 the company signed a contract to supply synthetic-graphite anode materials for secondary batteries worth ₩1,014.9 billion. This equals 34.5% of recent annual revenue, with supply running from October 2027 to September 2032. On March 26 it voluntarily disclosed a corporate-value-up plan, laying out mid-term targets of ₩8.3 trillion revenue and 3.7% ROIC by 2027. On April 27 it decided to establish a new entity in Vietnam to produce synthetic-graphite anode materials, contributing about US$242 million, officially confirming the move to widen its anode footprint overseas. On April 30 it fair-disclosed preliminary Q1 2026 results, and on May 15 the quarterly report published the confirmed results and financial position in the original text. In sum, the picture is one of filling the shrunken cathode top line with new anode orders and overseas expansion.
The strengths are clear. On the back of effectively the only domestic synthetic-graphite anode mass-production capability, it won a ₩1 trillion-plus long-term supply contract, and the Vietnam expansion and the company's official growth blueprint of ₩8.3 trillion revenue by 2027 point the direction. Profit also turned from the 2024 bottom to a profit in 2025, and in Q1 2026 the recovery continued to the point of filling half of last year's full-year operating profit in one quarter. On asset value, a P/B of 3.35x sits below Ecopro BM (6.84x) and L&F (5.73x), so on net-asset terms it is not heavy relative to peers. The cautions are equally clear. Revenue fell for two straight years, the cathode slowdown still weighs on the top line, and a 224.8% debt-to-equity ratio with a below-1x interest-coverage ratio shows thin financial slack. The high earnings multiple (P/E) is because the recovery is still early, and for that multiple to fall back to a normal range, profit needs to fill in further. In conclusion, it is a stock where the below-peer valuation on asset terms shines if the new anode orders and expansion translate into actual revenue and profit and cathode finds a bottom, and a stock where the high earnings multiple persists longer if the top-line decline drags on or the profit recovery is slow. Rather than declaring one way or the other, it is more appropriate to weigh together the conditions under which it is strong and those under which it is weak.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Inconclusive
We selected the closest and data-verifiable names in the same EV-battery-materials business group: L&F is a pure cathode maker, Ecopro BM a large cathode-focused firm, and SKC a mix of anode copper foil and materials, so POSCO Future M's cathode-plus-anode structure can be weighed from both sides. That said, the differing business mixes limit a simple multiple comparison.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| EcoPro BM | 254.72x | 5.61x | 2.28% |
| L&F | — | 4.86x | -79.27% |
| SKC | — | 4.77x | -88.26% |
(a) Position: measured against the same business group, POSCO Future M's P/B of 3.35x is lower than Ecopro BM (6.84x) and L&F (5.73x), so on the surface it looks like a discount zone, and growing the anode share beyond cathode is a differentiator. (b) Premium/discount: however, L&F and SKC have sharply negative ROE amid a weak industry, and Ecopro BM is only 2.3%, so with the peer set's profitability broadly depressed it is hard to declare cheap or expensive on multiples alone. POSCO Future M's own 0.8% ROE, a low return on capital, is the backdrop to its P/B discount. (c) Limits of trailing: 2025 was an inflection point with profit pressed to the bottom, so the 422.4x P/E on last year's confirmed results is an exaggerated figure, and to look ahead one must weigh together the company's disclosed 2027 revenue target of ₩8.3 trillion and the recovery trajectory that began with Q1 results. Until the profit recovery is actually confirmed, it is more reasonable to withhold judgment than to conclude either way.
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩147,500 and the market capitalization is ₩13.1 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩142,185) and below its 60-day moving average (₩183,417). Short-term and medium-term trends are diverging, so the direction is best read separately. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 47.7, a neutral level. The one-month change is -6.8%, the three-month change is -48.9%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -50.2%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 9 (on a 1-99 scale, converted from returns against the index over the past year with more weight on recent performance; higher means stronger than the market). It is stronger than roughly 8% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 40.7%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
Relative performance stock vs index · start = 100
Excess return vs index · 3M -40.72% / 6M -46.69% / 12M -48.35%
Key metrics Computed vs whole-market median
Valuation
The P/E of 406.67x is above the whole-market median (12.97x). The P/B of 3.17x is above the whole-market median (0.84x).
Enterprise value (EV)
EV = market cap + net debt. It reflects cash and debt, so it captures the real cost of the whole business that market cap alone misses; lower multiples are cheaper relative to earnings or sales.
Profitability & financials
Return on equity (ROE) is -0.2%, below the whole-market average (3.0%). The operating margin is 1.2%. The debt ratio is 118.3%, so the financial structure is moderate.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.3B | $2.6B | $2.1B | -20.57% ↑ faster |
| Operating profit | $25.2M | $506,678 | $23.1M | +4451.47% ↑ faster |
| Net profit | $20.2M | -$149.2M | $22.7M | — |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.4B | $2.3B | $3.3B | $2.6B | $2.1B |
| Operating profit | $85.5M | $116.5M | $25.2M | $506,678 | $23.1M |
| Net profit | $94.2M | $83.1M | $20.2M | -$149.2M | $22.7M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 10.24% | ||||
Revenue fell 20.6% year over year (2023 ₩4.8 trillion → 2024 ₩3.7 trillion → 2025 ₩2.9 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'falling'. That said, the rate of decline narrowed from the prior year. Operating profit rose 4451.5% year over year. Profit is growing at an accelerating pace. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 10.2%. The two-year revenue CAGR is -21.4%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 10.4% lower than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- —
Points to watch
- Operating profit barely covers the interest bill (interest coverage below 1x).
- The most recent full-year net result was a loss.
- The most recent full year was a loss, so it is worth checking whether profitability recovers.
- Revenue fell 20.6% year over year (3-year trend: falling).
- The price is high versus peers, so expectations already appear priced in.
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-03-16UpdateSigned a supply contract for synthetic-graphite anode materials for secondary batteries with a global automaker (contract value ₩1,014.9 billion, 34.5% of recent annual revenue, supply period Oct 2027 to Sep 2032).Mid-term. A new anode revenue base that offsets the shrunken cathode top line. But it is not directly reflected in results until supply begins in 2027. Source
- 2026-03-26FilingCorporate-value-up plan (voluntary disclosure), laying out targets of revenue ₩4.8 trillion (2023) to ₩8.3 trillion (2027) and ROIC 1.3% to 3.7%.Mid-term. A growth direction the company set out itself, but a 2027 target, not a confirmed figure for this year. Source
- 2026-04-27FilingDecision to contribute capital to a new Vietnam entity producing synthetic-graphite anode materials (acquisition amount about US$242 million, to be contributed in installments).Mid-term. Investment to expand the anode production footprint overseas, though it takes time to reach operation and mass production. Source
- 2026-04-30EarningsFair disclosure of preliminary Q1 2026 consolidated operating results: revenue ₩757.5 billion (-10.4%), operating profit ₩17.7 billion (+3.2%).Short-term. The top line shrank but operating profit rose slightly, a quarter that checks whether profit is climbing off last year's bottom. Source
- 2026-05-15FilingFiled the Q1 2026 quarterly report (official confirmation of results and financial position).Short-term. Material that confirms the detailed line items of the preliminary results and the financial structure in the original text. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anode supply-contract size | approx. 1 ₩14.9 billion | contract value ₩1,014,945,300,000 | Confirmed | link |
| Corporate-value-up target (revenue and ROIC) | revenue ₩4.8 trillion(2023)→₩8.3 trillion(2027), ROIC 1.3%→3.7% | revenue ₩4.8 trillion('23)→₩8.3 trillion('27), ROIC 1.3%('23)→3.7%('27) | Confirmed | link |
| Q1 2026 operating profit | ₩17.7 billion | ₩17,699,640,745 | Confirmed | link |
| 2026 full-year net profit (in-house estimate) | approx. ₩45.0 billion | — | Unverified | — |
Recent filings Source
- 2026-05-29Corporate governance report
- 2026-05-28Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-12OwnershipLargest-shareholder ownership change report
- 2026-04-30EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-04-30EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-04-27Amended filing
- 2026-04-15Disclosure
- 2026-03-26Disclosure
- 2026-03-26Disclosure
- 2026-03-26Shareholders' meeting notice
- 2026-03-16Single supply/sales contract
📖 Plain-language glossary — expand if you are new to this
- P/E
- How many times a year's net profit the price is worth (lower is cheaper relative to earnings). The P/E here is on trailing (last full-year) results; for companies whose earnings swing fast (memory chips and other cyclicals/high-growth), a forward P/E on this year's expected earnings is more accurate.
- P/B
- Price relative to net assets (equity). Around 1x means it trades near book value; below 1x means below book.
- P/S
- Price relative to a year's revenue — useful for growth companies with thin earnings.
- Net debt / EV
- Net debt = interest-bearing debt − cash. Negative means more cash than debt (net cash). EV (enterprise value) = market cap + net debt, closer to what it would cost to buy the whole business.
- EV/EBIT · EV/EBITDA · EV/Sales
- Enterprise value against operating profit (EBIT), EBITDA, or revenue. Unlike P/E these reflect debt and cash; lower is cheaper relative to earnings power or sales.
- FCF / FCF yield
- Free cash flow = operating cash − capex, the cash actually left over. FCF yield = FCF ÷ market cap; higher means more cash generated per unit of market value.
- Intrinsic value (DCF)
- Future free cash flow (or, for some capex-heavy but profitable names, forecast earnings) discounted to today to estimate per-share value. Because it shifts a lot with the discount-rate and growth assumptions, it is shown as a bear/base/bull range, and the basis and assumptions are disclosed in one line beneath it.
- ROE
- How much profit the company earns in a year on its equity (%). Higher means better returns on capital.
- EPS / BPS
- Earnings per share / net assets (book value) per share.
- Operating / net margin
- Profit left from the core business / final profit after tax and interest, per unit of revenue.
- Debt ratio
- Debt relative to equity (%). Higher means more reliance on borrowing (norms vary by sector).
- Current ratio
- Assets convertible to cash within a year against debt due within a year. Above 100% leaves some short-term headroom.
- Interest coverage
- How many times operating profit covers the interest owed. Below 1x means operating profit alone struggles to cover interest.
- Dividend yield / payout ratio
- The year's dividend as a % of today's price / the share of earnings paid out as dividends.
- Revenue CAGR
- Multi-year growth expressed as a single yearly average (compound annual growth rate).
- RSI (short-term signal)
- Whether recent price action is overheated or beaten down. Above 70 is overbought, below 30 oversold.
- MA20 / MA60 (moving averages)
- The 20- and 60-day average price. Price above them signals a firmer short-term trend.
- vs 52-week high
- How far below the past year's peak the price sits now (%).
All figures are for reference only; how they read varies by sector and over time.
Sources: Korea FSC market-price API (data.go.kr), OpenDART, KRX/KIND — public data only.
Bong Stocks presents public-data-based information for reference only. It is not investment advice and contains no target prices, ratings, or buy/sell recommendations. Verify independently before making any decision.