Netmarble (251270) 🔎 In-depth
KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
Netmarble earns money by servicing mobile and PC games built on its own and partnered IP - such as Seven Knights and Solo Leveling - in Korea and abroad; its actual revenue is what remains from users' payments after Google and Apple platform fees are deducted, and to this are added, in net profit, equity-method income and valuation and disposal gains from its stakes in Coway (about 29%) and HYBE (9.44%). In Q1 2026 it confirmed the profitable footing of its core game business, and it continues to tidy up its finances by monetizing stakes and assets to reduce debt - for example, selling a 2.35% HYBE stake for ₩320.7 billion in February and booking it to net profit; the dividend is ₩876 per share (a dividend yield of 2.3%). The key point now is that the value of its two listed stakes alone (Coway ₩1,608.6 billion and HYBE ₩1,297.2 billion) approaches the market cap, so from a net-asset-value perspective it can be seen as undervalued, but a substantial part of the net-profit increase is a one-off disposal gain, financial headroom is tight, and results swing widely depending on whether new titles succeed.
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
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 “Games” (Games, Entertainment & Content), a type typically read first through forward P/E.
Game companies' results hinge on new title launches, so expected future profits explain the share price better than past earnings do. That's why forward P/E — based on projected net income — comes before the trailing figure here.
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
- Assets that can be turned to cash within a year fall short of near-term liabilities (current ratio 68.6%).
- Revenue rose 6.4% year over year, and the pace is slowing (3-year trend: rising).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 4.5% higher than a year earlier.
- ROE is 6.2% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
- Operating margin is 12.4%.
- P/B is low versus peers too, so it looks cheap on an asset basis as well.
Ownership & governance As of 2025-12-31
Largest shareholder Bang Jun-hyuk 24.12% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 24.15%
With the controlling bloc holding 24%, control is maintained but the free float is relatively large.
Net asset value (NAV) assessment
💡 How to read a holding company · A holding company owns stakes in several subsidiaries. Its P/E swings with equity-method gains and losses on those stakes, so read it only as a rough guide. P/B is more meaningful because subsidiary stakes sit in equity, but book value carries them at low historical cost (so P/B looks higher than reality). The most accurate view is the price against the market value of those stakes (NAV) ↓
Valued against the net asset value (NAV) of its listed holdings rather than a consolidated P/E — see the in-depth valuation for the detailed basis.
Listed subsidiaries ownership
| Coway | 25.74% |
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
Netmarble earns money from games played on smartphones and PCs. It services games built on its own and partnered IP - such as Seven Knights, Solo Leveling, The Seven Deadly Sins, and RF Online - in Korea and abroad, with a substantial share of revenue coming from overseas. Its structure is such that actual revenue is what remains from game users' payments after platform fees to Google, Apple, and others (₩200.9 billion in Q1 2026) are deducted, so reducing fees leads directly to improved profitability. On top of this, Netmarble holds about a 29% stake in Coway, a water-purifier and mattress rental company, and a 9.44% stake in the entertainment company HYBE; these two stakes are not merged directly into revenue but are reflected in net profit through equity-method income (an accounting method that shares in profit in proportion to the stake held) and valuation and disposal gains. In other words, it is a structure combining 'a core game business plus large investment assets.'
The latest close is ₩39,000 and the market capitalization is ₩3.2 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩37,158) and below its 60-day moving average (₩39,484). 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 54.6, a neutral level. The one-month change is -0.6%, the three-month change is -19.5%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -42.6%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 12 (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 11% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 1.5%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
On a 2025 basis, the P/E ratio (how many times a year's earnings the price represents) is 14.20x and the P/B (how many times the company's net assets the price represents) is 0.56x, trading below net assets. The ROE (how much is earned in a year on equity) is 4.1%, still low, because the core game business's earnings are at the start of a recovery and the capital base (₩5.4 trillion) is large. The operating margin is 12.4%, the debt ratio (debt relative to equity) is somewhat high at 149%, and the current ratio is 66%, so short-term cash headroom is not ample. That said, the 0.57x P/B is especially important: on the book capital, the Coway and HYBE stakes are carried at around acquisition cost, so net assets appear understated relative to their actual holding value. As a result, it is hard to conclude expensive or cheap from last year's P/E alone, and the net-asset-value (NAV) perspective covered later is more accurate.
Revenue rose gradually from ₩2.50 trillion in 2023 to ₩2.66 trillion in 2024 to ₩2.84 trillion in 2025, but the recovery in earnings was much larger. Operating profit swung to profit within two years, from -₩68.5 billion (a loss) in 2023 to ₩215.6 billion in 2024 to ₩352.5 billion in 2025, up 63% year on year, and net profit also jumped sharply from ₩25.6 billion in 2024 to ₩225.0 billion in 2025. In Q1 2026 the core business was firm with revenue of ₩651.7 billion (+4.5%) and operating profit of ₩53.1 billion (+6.8%), while net profit surged to ₩210.9 billion, reflecting a one-off gain from selling part (2.35%) of its HYBE stake for ₩320.7 billion in February. In 2026, new titles are concentrated in the second half - Sol: Enchant, Solo Leveling: Karma, the PC version of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, and Project Aegis - leaving room for the core game business's earnings to be sustained or expanded. On an in-house estimate, this year's net profit is expected to exceed last year's as the core game recovery is joined by the HYBE disposal gain, in which case the forward multiple - the current market cap divided by this year's earnings - falls to around 8x, noticeably below last year's P/E (13.8x).
Looking at the disclosure flow, two axes stand out. The first is the improvement in the core game business's results: a fair disclosure of preliminary results on May 7 confirmed Q1's profitable footing, and an IR held on April 29 shared the new-title roadmap. The second is the tidying-up of the financial structure: it sold a 2.35% HYBE stake for ₩320.7 billion in February, booking it to Q1 net profit, and on June 4 it decided to dispose of tangible assets (its headquarters building and others). With a debt ratio of 49% and an interest coverage ratio of 2.22x carrying an interest burden, this reads as a 'financial diet' aimed at reducing debt by monetizing stakes and assets. The dividend is ₩876 per share (a dividend yield of 2.3%, a payout ratio of 32%), which is on the generous side for the game sector.
There are three strengths. (1) The core game business's earnings improvement, having emerged from losses, has continued for a second year, and the second-half new-title lineup is thick. (2) The value of the two listed stakes alone - Coway (fair value ₩1,608.6 billion) and HYBE (₩1,297.2 billion) - totals about ₩2.9 trillion, approaching the company's entire market cap (₩3.1 trillion). In other words, the market is effectively assigning almost no value to the core game business, placing it in an undervalued zone from a net-asset-value (NAV) perspective. (3) The direction is to reduce high debt through stake and asset disposals. Points to note are (1) that a substantial part of the 2026 net-profit increase is a one-off gain from the HYBE sale, so the recovery pace of core-business-only net profit excluding this is still gradual; (2) that financial headroom - the debt ratio, current ratio, and so on - is tight; and (3) that in games, results swing widely depending on whether new titles succeed. If the new titles succeed and the financial tidying-up advances, there is large room for the undervaluation to be resolved, while if new-title weakness compounds, the core-business recovery could be delayed.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Undervalued
Large publishers based on their own and partnered IP among domestically listed game companies are taken as the peer group; because Netmarble also holds large investment assets such as Coway and HYBE, a net-asset-value (NAV) perspective is applied alongside.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Krafton | 14.44x | 1.45x | 11.99% |
| NCSOFT | 14.88x | 1.46x | 13.09% |
| Kakao Games | — | 0.75x | -8.45% |
The core game business multiple (2025 P/E of 13.8x) is lower than Krafton and NCSoft (in the 15x range), but because Netmarble is at the start of an earnings recovery, the informational value of last year's trailing P/E is limited. On a forward basis, with the core recovery joined by the HYBE disposal gain, the multiple falls to around 8x. That said, Netmarble's true valuation axis is not the P/E or P/B but net asset value (NAV). Because the Coway and HYBE stakes' fair value of ₩2.9 trillion alone approaches the ₩3.1 trillion market cap, the market is in effect valuing the core game business and the remaining assets, such as the Kakao Games stake, at almost nothing. Both versus the peer group and versus the value of its holdings, we judge it an undervalued zone with a large discount.
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩39,000 and the market capitalization is ₩3.2 trillion. The price sits above its 20-day moving average (₩37,158) and below its 60-day moving average (₩39,484). 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 54.6, a neutral level. The one-month change is -0.6%, the three-month change is -19.5%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -42.6%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 12 (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 11% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 1.5%. 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 -1.50% / 6M -39.53% / 12M -66.23%
Key metrics Computed vs sector median
Valuation
The P/E of 14.20x is above the sector median (10.02x). The P/B of 0.56x is below the sector median (0.77x). That said, this P/E is based on last year's (trailing) results. With recent quarterly earnings up sharply, the trailing P/E can look higher than it really is, so a precise read is best done on this year's expected (forward) earnings.
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.
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.
DCF (discounted cash flow) estimate — discount rate 10.7%, initial growth 10.0%→terminal 2.0%, 10-yr forecast, free-cash-flow basis, forward earnings power normalized 1.742x. A reference range that shifts materially with assumptions.
Profitability & financials
Return on equity (ROE) is 6.2%, in line with the sector average (7.0%). The operating margin is 12.4%. The debt ratio is 43.6%, so the financial structure is stable.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.8B | $1.9B | $2.0B | +6.43% ↓ slower |
| Operating profit | -$48.1M | $151.5M | $247.6M | +63.47% |
| Net profit | -$179.6M | $18.0M | $158.1M | +777.65% |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.8B | $1.9B | $1.8B | $1.9B | $2.0B |
| Operating profit | $106.1M | -$76.4M | -$48.1M | $151.5M | $247.6M |
| Net profit | $175.0M | -$622.7M | -$179.6M | $18.0M | $158.1M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 3.12% | ||||
Revenue rose 6.4% year over year (2023 ₩2.5 trillion → 2024 ₩2.7 trillion → 2025 ₩2.8 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'rising'. That said, the pace of growth slowed from the prior year. Operating profit rose 63.5% year over year. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 3.1%. The two-year revenue CAGR is 6.5%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 4.5% higher than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- P/E and P/B are both low versus peers, so the price looks inexpensive relative to earnings and assets.
Points to watch
- Revenue rose 6.4% year over year, and the pace is slowing (3-year trend: rising).
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-05-07EarningsFair disclosure of preliminary consolidated Q1 2026 results: revenue ₩651.7 billion (+4.5%), operating profit ₩53.1 billion (+6.8%), net profit ₩210.9 billion (+162.9%). Core-business profitability improved on lower platform fees.Confirms the profitable footing of the core game business. That said, the net-profit surge was led by a one-off gain from the HYBE stake sale, so it should be viewed separately from the core business's own recovery pace. Source
- 2026-06-04FilingDecision to dispose of tangible assets (sale of assets such as the headquarters building). Part of the financial-structure tidying-up carried out together with the partial HYBE stake sale.With a debt ratio of 49% and an interest coverage ratio of 2.22x, if this leads to securing cash and reducing borrowings, it helps ease the interest burden. A medium-term factor for improving financial stability. Source
- 2026-04-29IRDisclosure announcing an investor briefing (IR). Shared Q1 results and the second-half new-title roadmap (Sol: Enchant, Solo Leveling: Karma, the PC version of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, Project Aegis, and others).A period in which second-half new titles are concentrated, raising volatility in the core game business's revenue and earnings. Whether they succeed is the key variable for second-half results. Source
- 2026-06-01FilingCorporate governance report disclosure. As the representative company of a large business group, periodic disclosure of governance and affiliate status.Given a governance profile that holds large stakes such as Coway, periodic material for confirming the transparency of affiliate status and shareholding structure. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
| Metric | Computed | External | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 operating profit | ₩53.1 billion(base quarter op_income 53,053,513,568) | ₩53.1 billion | Confirmed | link |
| 2025 operating profit | ₩352.5 billion(base op_income 352,478,352,483) | ₩352.5 billion | Confirmed | link |
| Fair value of listed stakes held (Coway + HYBE) | 5.43 | 16,086 + 12,972 = 29,058 | Unverified | link |
| Forward P/E (in-house estimate) | approx. 7.9x | — | Unverified | link |
Recent filings Source
- 2026-06-04Disclosure
- 2026-06-01Corporate governance report
- 2026-05-29Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-29Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-27Disclosure
- 2026-05-18OwnershipLargest-shareholder ownership change report
- 2026-05-15Amended filing
- 2026-05-14Amended filing
- 2026-05-14Amended filing
- 2026-05-14PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-05-07EarningsFair-disclosure notice
- 2026-04-29Disclosure
📖 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.