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NAVER (035420) 🔎 In-depth

KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09

Compiled and reviewed by Bing Bing · Figures are computed automatically from public filings and market data; the written analysis is drafted automatically and then rule-verified · Methodology · AI Disclosure · Report an error

NAVER is Korea's largest internet platform, earning its money mainly from search advertising and shopping, and it runs payments and digital finance alongside global businesses such as webtoons and cloud. First-quarter 2026 revenue rose 16.3% from a year earlier to ₩3.2411 trillion, but operating profit grew only 7.2% to ₩541.8 billion and the operating margin slipped from 18.1% to 16.7%. The notable point recently is that Nvidia is taking part in a third-party allocation share issue worth about US$1 billion as the AI factory business gets under way, while revenue from that venture only begins in the first half of 2027, leaving 2026 as a stretch in which only the upfront costs land in the income statement.

This page organises public market and filing data for information purposes. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell, nor investment advice. Metrics labelled “forward” are our own unverified estimates. Please verify with the original DART filings and decide at your own responsibility.

30-second brief

Earnings trend
revenue and profit are growing.
Financials
debt levels look manageable.
Data as of
prices as of 2026-08-06, financials as of 2026 1분기.

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

P/E (trailing)18.15x

This stock's effective sub-sector is “Platforms & Portals” (Internet, Platforms & Software), a type typically read first through P/E.

Platform and portal companies run several businesses at once — advertising, commerce, content — and monetize a large user base. So price-to-earnings (P/E) — the share price against earnings — is the first lens, read alongside a sum-of-the-parts view (SOTP) that values each distinct segment separately.

P/B (price-to-book)1.20x

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

Financial healthStable
  • Debt ratio, current ratio and interest burden all look healthy.
GrowthGrowing
  • Revenue rose 12.1% year over year, and the pace is quickening (3-year trend: rising).
  • Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 16.3% higher than a year earlier.
ProfitabilityModerate
  • ROE is 6.2% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
  • Operating margin is 18.0%.
ValuationUndervalued
  • 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 National Pension Service 0% (corporate)

Controlling bloc incl. related parties 9.25%

With the controlling bloc holding 9%, ownership is dispersed, leaving room for control-related or activist dynamics.

🔎 In-depth analysis Reading

🏢Business

NAVER really makes its money in three places. The largest pillar is 'NAVER Platform' — revenue from search and display advertising plus Shopping and Place. In the first quarter of 2026 it brought in ₩1.8398 trillion, 56.8% of total revenue. Second is the 'Global Challenge' segment, which bundles webtoons, consumer-to-consumer trading, the camera app SNOW, cloud (NCP) and the collaboration tool Works; together they generated ₩941.6 billion (29.0%). Third is 'Financial Platform', covering payments and digital finance, at ₩459.7 billion (14.2%). By region, domestic revenue of ₩2.71 trillion accounts for 83.6%, while Japan at ₩286.3 billion and the United States at ₩183.2 billion bring the overseas share to about 16.4%. For accounting purposes the company reports as a single operating segment and discloses service-level figures separately; from the first quarter it changed its classification basis and restated the prior quarter's numbers as well.

📈Price & chart

The latest close is ₩226,000 and the market capitalization is ₩35.5 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩202,900) and above its 60-day moving average (₩213,658). It holds above both its short- and medium-term moving averages, so the trend looks healthy. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 58.1, a neutral level. The one-month change is +14.6%, the three-month change is +8.6%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -21.2%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 41 (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 41% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 29.6%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.

📊Key metrics

The first metric to look at for a company like this is the P/E ratio (how many times one year of profit the share price represents). On 2025 net profit attributable to controlling interests of ₩1.9532 trillion and earnings per share of ₩12,451, the P/E is 18.15x. That figure, however, is calculated on the share count before treasury shares were cancelled (156.94 million shares), so it is worth reworking on a current basis. Subtracting the 4.9 million shares scheduled for cancellation on 3 August leaves 152.08 million shares outstanding, and on the same price and the same profit the P/E works out to 18.15x. Add the 7.24 million new shares to be paid up for Nvidia at the end of October and the count becomes 159.32 million, for 16.9x. Cancellation and issuance offset each other, so the share count ends up rising only about 1.5%. Profitability is a mixed picture. The operating margin is a solid 18.4%, but ROE (return on equity, how much is earned on shareholders' money) is only 7.1%. Shareholders' equity of ₩27.582 trillion carries a heavy load of associate holdings, including a ₩14.8557 trillion carrying value for A Holdings (the Japanese holding company that owns LINE and Yahoo Japan, 50%-held), which enlarges the denominator. A P/B of 1.29x (how many times book net assets the share price represents) calls for the same caution, because those stakes are carried at their value at acquisition and may differ from what they are actually worth. The balance sheet is comfortable. Cash and cash equivalents of ₩6.3763 trillion at the end of the first quarter plus ₩1.9807 trillion of short-term financial instruments come to ₩8.357 trillion, and net borrowings are negative ₩1.8105 trillion — a net cash position with more cash than debt. Enterprise value (EV, market capitalization less net cash) is ₩29.5513 trillion, giving EV/EBIT of 13.4x and EV/EBITDA of 10.0x. Free cash flow, operating cash minus capital expenditure, is ₩1.7764 trillion, a 5.7% free-cash-flow yield on market capitalization. A debt-to-equity ratio of 49% looks high on the number alone, but a substantial part consists of liabilities arising in the course of operations, such as payment deposits and leases. A current ratio of 1.36x and interest coverage of 3.9x leave no strain in servicing interest. The company is positioned to fund a large part of the AI infrastructure investment ahead from its own cash.

🚀Growth

Start with the long arc. Revenue grew from ₩6.8176 trillion in 2021 to ₩12.035 trillion in 2025, a 15.3% average annual pace over five years. The last three years are alive too: ₩9.6706 trillion in 2023, ₩10.7377 trillion in 2024 and ₩12.035 trillion in 2025, with the growth rate actually quickening from 11.0% to 12.1%. Where the paths separate is profit. Operating profit jumped 32.9% from ₩1.4888 trillion in 2023 to ₩1.9793 trillion in 2024, but in 2025 it rose only 11.6% to ₩2.2081 trillion. The gap is starker in net profit, which surged 90.0% in 2024 and then rose just 1.6% in 2025. The first quarter of 2026 followed the same shape. Revenue of ₩3.2411 trillion was up 16.3%, keeping the top line growing at a double-digit pace, but operating profit rose only 7.2% to ₩541.8 billion, pulling the operating margin down from 18.1% a year earlier to 16.7%. Net profit fell 31.3% to ₩291.0 billion, largely because equity-method results from associates were booked as a ₩131.5 billion loss in the quarter. Broken out by segment, growth is even: Financial Platform up 18.9%, Global Challenge up 18.4% and NAVER Platform up 14.7%, all three pillars growing at double digits. That is the evidence that margins are compressed for reasons other than weakening demand in the core business. For the year as a whole, the view is this. Layering the second half — the peak season for advertising — onto confirmed first-quarter results, revenue can keep growing at a double-digit rate. Operating profit growth, by contrast, will most likely stay in single digits, and the reason is clear. The AI factory being built with Nvidia only starts generating revenue when 55MW comes online in the first half of 2027, leaving 2026 as a stretch in which only the preparatory costs and depreciation ahead of it land in the income statement. On top of that comes a tough comparison against the large equity-method gains from associates in 2025. As a result the forward P/E on this year's earnings works out to 20.43x, slightly higher than the 16.7x on last year's results — not because growth has broken down, but because costs land before the money is earned. Turn that around and the start-up in the first half of 2027 becomes the inflection point for the earnings trend.

📰Recent news & filings

Over the past two months a cluster of filings has reshaped the frame of the company. First, the AI factory with Nvidia. A future business and management plan disclosed on 8 June was amended on 27 July, filling in the detail. NAVER takes responsibility for securing data center sites and for construction and operation, while Nvidia handles GPU supply. In the amendment, though, Nvidia's role narrowed from 'a business principal sharing both revenue and business risk' to 'the party supplying GPUs'. That means NAVER carries more of the business risk, which is worth noting. The build plan calls for 55MW in the first half of 2027, a cumulative 100MW by the end of 2027 and a cumulative 200MW in 2028, with a gigawatt-scale goal in the end. The first site is the hyperscale data center 'GAK Sejong', and it will adopt Nvidia's next-generation infrastructure platform 'DSX'. The US$9 billion of computing infrastructure required is under discussion for project financing arranged by Brookfield Asset Management, with Brookfield named exclusive preferred negotiating partner for 12 weeks. The amount the company itself will invest is still undetermined. Second, Nvidia's equity participation. A 27 July filing shows Nvidia taking part in a third-party allocation share issue worth about US$1 billion. It covers 7,241,564 common shares at ₩204,500 each, a 0% discount to the reference price. The payment date is 30 October and the listing date is 20 November, with a lock-up agreement barring withdrawal and disposal for one year. Because the total subscription amount is fixed in dollars, the final share count is settled at the exchange rate around the payment date. Third, on the same day the company also decided to cancel treasury shares. It cancelled 4,901,094 treasury shares already held on 3 August. At the ₩207,500 close on the day of the board resolution that comes to ₩1.017 trillion, with no reduction in paid-in capital. The 4.9 million cancelled shares are fewer than the 7.24 million added by the share issue, so the count still rises on net, but the move reverses a substantial part of the dilution. Fourth, the Dunamu acquisition. The subsidiary NAVER Financial is pursuing a comprehensive share exchange to make Dunamu, which operates a digital asset trading platform, a wholly owned subsidiary. An amended filing on 6 July pushed the shareholder meeting from 18 August to 19 November and the exchange date from 30 September to 31 December. The exchange ratio is 2.5422618 Dunamu shares per NAVER Financial share, and the new shares NAVER Financial will issue to Dunamu shareholders total 87,559,198, or ₩15.1285 trillion. Dunamu's total assets in its most recent fiscal year were ₩15.3205 trillion and total equity ₩5.8852 trillion. Even after the exchange, NAVER plans to keep NAVER Financial as a consolidated subsidiary by securing voting rights through a shareholders' agreement, and it has agreed to set up a team preparing NAVER Financial for listing within a year. Approvals including business combination clearance from the Korea Fair Trade Commission remain outstanding, however, and the contract can be terminated if appraisal claims from dissenting shareholders exceed ₩1.2 trillion at either company.

🧭Bottom line

Start with what is worth observing. Margins are compressed right now, but not because the core business is wobbling. First-quarter revenue rose 16.3% and all three segments grew more than 14%. This is a stretch in which money is going into a new business, AI infrastructure, before it comes back. The balance sheet can carry that load. Net cash stands at ₩1.8105 trillion, cash equivalents and short-term financial instruments together come to ₩8.357 trillion, and free cash flow runs about ₩1.7764 trillion a year. About US$1 billion more arrives with the Nvidia share issue at the end of October. The valuation is not demanding either. The forward P/E of 20.43x on this year's earnings is about half of Kakao's 33.4x in the same platform and portal group, and EV/EBITDA of 10.0x with a 5.7% free-cash-flow yield is not heavy for a platform growing at double digits. A ₩1 trillion treasury share cancellation also confirms the intent on shareholder returns. The cautions are equally clear. First, the AI factory contract is not finalized. Project financing for the US$9 billion of infrastructure is still under discussion and the company's own investment amount is undetermined. Securing sites, obtaining permits in each country and power infrastructure are obstacles the company wrote into the filing itself. Second, Nvidia's role narrowing from shared risk to GPU supply signals that NAVER's share of the burden has grown. Third, net profit volatility. Associate holdings in the ₩17 trillion range swing quarter to quarter through equity-method results, and the first quarter booked a ₩131.5 billion loss. It is a structure in which one quarter's net profit is a poor basis for judging the company. Fourth, the Dunamu acquisition still hinges on regulatory approval and the scale of dissenting shareholder claims, so both the timetable and completion remain fluid. The third and fourth points change the company's structure before they change the numbers, so following earnings releases alone makes them easy to miss. In sum, the core business is growing at double digits, the balance sheet is sturdy and the valuation is not heavy, while the new growth pillar is at the stage where only costs are going out and several conditions remain unsettled.

🔎 Valuation vs peers Undervalued

Chosen from Korean-listed internet platforms whose business overlaps. Kakao is a direct comparison in the same platform and portal group, Kakao Pay overlaps on the payments and digital finance side, and Douzone Bizon overlaps on enterprise software and cloud. SOOP falls in the same classification but differs greatly in scale and degree of business diversification, so it is included only as a contrast.

PeerP/EP/BROE
Kakao34.42x1.48x4.51%
Kakao Pay124.96x2.93x3.40%
Douzone Bizon37.86x5.68x16.76%
SOOP4.86x1.09x22.26%

(a) Position versus the peer set. The forward P/E of 20.43x on this year's earnings is far below Kakao's 33.4x in the same platform and portal group. It also sits below Kakao Pay (128.4x) in payments and finance platforms and Douzone Bizon (37.9x) in enterprise software. SOOP, by contrast, is much lower at 4.8x, but it is a single-service operator with a market capitalization in the ₩500 billion range, so its scale and business mix are different. (b) Premium and discount. NAVER has several grounds for commanding a higher valuation than Kakao. It leads on all three of operating margin (18.4% versus 9.0%), ROE (7.1% versus 4.4%) and revenue growth (12.1% versus 3.0%). In practice, though, it carries about half the earnings multiple. On top of that, the roughly ₩17 trillion of associate holdings inside shareholders' equity of ₩27.582 trillion and ₩1.8105 trillion of net cash are barely captured in an earnings multiple. Allowing for those assets, the value placed on the core business is lower still than the headline multiple suggests. For these reasons we judge it to be in a range valued low against its peers. (c) The limits of trailing metrics and the case on this year's numbers. The trailing P/E of 18.15x uses 2025 profit as its denominator, a year with large equity-method gains from associates. This year that tough comparison makes a decline in net profit likely, so the forward P/E works out slightly higher at 18.76x. The reason profit falls, though, is not a weak core business but the equity-method comparison and upfront AI infrastructure costs. First-quarter revenue rose 16.3% and all three segments grew more than 14%. Because the divisions split across advertising, commerce, fintech, content and cloud, a sum-of-the-parts view that values each division separately and adds them up fits this company better than relying on a single earnings multiple. This is not a case where any particular price can be declared cheap or expensive outright, and the basis for judgment can shift depending on whether the AI factory contract is finalized and how the Dunamu acquisition turns out.

₩226,000 -1.31%
Market cap $24.9B

Price history Close · MA20 · MA60

Close MA20MA60

The latest close is ₩226,000 and the market capitalization is ₩35.5 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩202,900) and above its 60-day moving average (₩213,658). It holds above both its short- and medium-term moving averages, so the trend looks healthy. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 58.1, a neutral level. The one-month change is +14.6%, the three-month change is +8.6%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -21.2%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 41 (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 41% of all stocks. Over the past three months it outpaced the index by 29.6%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.

Relative performance stock vs index · start = 100

41Relative strength vs KOSPI1–99 · last 12 months’ return vs the index, recency-weighted · higher = stronger than the marketTop 59% strength

Excess return vs index · 3M +29.56% / 6M -33.71% / 12M -50.08%

StockKOSPI

Key metrics Computed vs sector median

Valuation

P/E (trailing)18.15x
Forward P/E20.43x
P/B1.20x
Forward P/B1.15x
P/S2.95x
EPS₩12,451
BPS (book value/share)₩187,741
Dividend yield1.16%
DPS₩2,630

The P/E of 18.15x is in line with the sector median (16.39x). The P/B of 1.20x is in line with the sector median (1.17x).

Enterprise value (EV)

Net debt-$1.3B
EV (enterprise value)$23.6B
EV/EBIT15.00x
EV/EBITDA11.40x
EV/Sales2.70x
FCF (free cash flow)$1.2B
FCF yield5.01%

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.

Intrinsic value (DCF estimate) Estimate

Model output — not a price target. This is what the formula returns under the assumptions below, not a view on where the share price should go.

Bear case₩98,800
Base case₩129,400
Bull case₩193,100

DCF (discounted cash flow) estimate — discount rate 10.7%, initial growth 2.0%→terminal 2.0%, 10-yr forecast, free-cash-flow basis, forward earnings power normalized 0.888x. A reference range that shifts materially with assumptions.

Confidence: Low (bull–bear span 73% of the base case) · Most sensitive assumption: discount rate — a 1%p change moves the base case by roughly 10–20% · Financial basis: FY2025 statements

Profitability & financials

ROE6.18%
Operating margin17.97%
Net margin14.58%
Debt ratio47.46%
Payout ratio20.20%

Return on equity (ROE) is 6.2%, in line with the sector average (7.0%). The operating margin is 18.0%. The debt ratio is 47.5%, so the financial structure is stable.

Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)

Item202320242025YoY
Revenue$6.8B$7.5B$8.5B+12.08% ↑ faster
Operating profit$1.0B$1.4B$1.6B+11.56% ↓ slower
Net profit$711.2M$1.4B$1.4B+1.56% ↓ slower
5-year20212022202320242025
Revenue$4.8B$5.8B$6.8B$7.5B$8.5B
Operating profit$931.2M$916.5M$1.0B$1.4B$1.6B
Net profit$11.6B$534.1M$711.2M$1.4B$1.4B
Revenue CAGR4-yr avg 15.27%

Revenue rose 12.1% year over year (2023 ₩9.7 trillion → 2024 ₩10.7 trillion → 2025 ₩12.0 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'rising'. The pace of growth also quickened from the prior year. Operating profit rose 11.6% year over year. The pace of that profit growth is gradually easing. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 15.3%. The two-year revenue CAGR is 11.6%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 16.3% higher than the same period a year earlier.

Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago

Revenue$2.3B
Revenue YoY+16.30%
Operating profit$380.6M
Op. profit YoY+7.21%
Net profit$204.4M
Net profit YoY-31.31%

Technical indicators Computed

RSI (14)58.1
MA20₩202,900
MA60₩213,658
1-month+14.60%
3-month+8.65%
vs 52-wk high-21.25%

What stands out

  • Revenue grew 12.1% year over year, a sign of growth.
  • The balance sheet is stable in terms of debt and liquidity.

Points to watch

  • The figures shown are based on the last annual report as of the writing date, so it is best to review the latest quarterly results and filings alongside them.

Recent news & events searched · sourced

Figure cross-check computed ↔ external

MetricComputedExternalStatusSource
First-quarter 2026 revenue and operating profitrevenue 3 ₩241.1 billion, operating profit ₩541.8 billionrevenue ₩3.24 trillion, operating profit ₩541.8 billionConfirmedlink
Share count used in the P/E calculation16.67x156,977,585 / 4,901,094 152,076,491Mismatchlink
Value of the treasury share cancellation4,901,094 × ₩207,500 = ₩1,016,977,005,000₩1,016,977,005,000Confirmedlink
Proceeds raised in the Nvidia share issue7,241,564 × ₩204,500 = ₩1,480,899,838,000₩1,480,899,838,000Confirmedlink
Net cash position-1 ₩810.5 billion1 6 ₩376.3 billion + 1 ₩980.7 billionConfirmedlink
First-quarter revenue mix by service1 ₩839.8 billion(56.8%), ₩941.6 billion(29.0%), ₩459.7 billion(14.2%)Confirmedlink
2026 forward P/E17.6xUnverifiedlink

Recent filings Source

📖 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.