HYBE (352820) 🔎 In-depth
KOSPI · Price as of 2026-08-06 · Updated 2026-08-09
HYBE is a diversified entertainment company that makes money from the music IP of numerous groups, including BTS, Seventeen, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN, and ILLIT. Its two pillars are a direct-participation business (albums, physical and digital recordings, concerts, and advertising) and an indirect-participation business (merchandise, licensing, and its own fan platform, Weverse). In the first quarter of 2026 the direct-participation business generated ₩403.7 billion (physical albums alone were ₩271.5 billion, +99%) and the indirect-participation business ₩294.7 billion (+66%), a record high for revenue, while Weverse averaged 13.37 million monthly users, also an all-time high; the headline loss stemmed from a one-off cost tied to a share gift by the largest shareholder, and on an adjusted basis the core business rebounded +170.8%. The point worth watching now is a two-sided one: the strength of a strong core earnings engine as BTS reunites at full strength and the recurring-billing Weverse platform work together, balanced against the caution that profit swings sharply with tour and comeback schedules, making quarterly results volatile, so a re-rating depends on second-half results delivering as expected.
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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 “Entertainment (Agencies)” (Games, Entertainment & Content), a type typically read first through forward P/E.
Entertainment agencies' future results depend heavily on their artists' activity, new debuts, and content expansion, so expected profits explain the share price better than past earnings. That's why forward P/E — based on projected net income — comes before the trailing figure.
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 rose 17.5% year over year, and the pace is quickening (3-year trend: rising).
- Most recent quarter (Q1 2026) revenue was 39.5% higher than a year earlier.
- ROE is -7.3% (controlling-interest basis). It is below the sector average.
- Operating margin is 1.9%.
- 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 Bang Si-hyuk 30.86% (individual)
Controlling bloc incl. related parties 31.71%
With the controlling bloc holding 32%, the ownership structure is stable.
🔎 In-depth analysis Reading
HYBE houses numerous groups—BTS, Seventeen, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN, ILLIT, and more—as in-house labels and makes money from the music IP they create as a diversified entertainment company. Revenue splits broadly into two branches: a 'direct-participation' business the artists create themselves (albums and recordings, concerts, advertising) and an 'indirect-participation' business that extends and sells that IP (merchandise, licensing, content, fan clubs, and its own fan platform, Weverse). As of the first quarter of 2026, the direct-participation business was ₩403.7 billion (physical albums alone ₩271.5 billion, +99% year over year) and the indirect-participation business was ₩294.7 billion (+66%). Weverse in particular hit an all-time high of 13.37 million average monthly users, serving as a platform that keeps money flowing steadily even in periods with no album or tour. In other words, HYBE's revenue base goes beyond a 'sell once when an album sells well' structure to one where a major IP (BTS) and a recurring-billing platform (Weverse) work together.
The latest close is ₩180,700 and the market capitalization is ₩7.8 trillion. The price sits below its 20-day moving average (₩196,445) and below its 60-day moving average (₩210,778). It is under both its short- and medium-term moving averages, so the trend looks subdued. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 42.2, a neutral level. The one-month change is -22.1%, the three-month change is -26.7%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -55.3%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 8 (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 7% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 11.7%. Chart interpretation is best done alongside trading volume and the dates on which disclosures occur.
On surface metrics alone it looks burdensome. In 2025 the company posted a net loss of ₩237.3 billion, so a P/E ratio (how many years of profit the share price represents) cannot be calculated, while the P/B ratio (how many times book net assets the share price represents) is 2.35x and ROE (how much is earned on equity in a year) is -7.3%. The debt ratio (debt relative to equity) is 59%, not excessive, and the current ratio of 322% leaves ample short-term liquidity. The key point, though, is that these loss figures come not from a deteriorating core business but from a large one-off cost. In fact, the ₩196.6 billion headline operating loss in the first quarter of 2026 was due to roughly ₩255 billion in one-off, non-cash costs recognized in the accounts when the largest shareholder gifted shares to employees; stripping that out, adjusted operating profit was ₩58.5 billion (+170.8%). Valuations based on last year's and the first quarter's losses therefore understate the company's current earnings power, and for a stock at an earnings inflection point the forward profit is the real picture.
The top line has grown steadily. Revenue rose from ₩1.26 trillion in 2021 to ₩2.65 trillion in 2025, a five-year annual average of +20.5%, and even accelerated to +17.5% in 2025. Profit wobbled—from ₩187.3 billion net profit in 2023 to ₩9.4 billion in 2024 and a ₩237.3 billion loss in 2025—because that stretch overlapped the BTS full-group hiatus and large one-off costs. The inflection point is 2026. First-quarter revenue set a record at ₩698.3 billion (+39.5%) despite being an off-season, centered on BTS's fifth studio album 'Arirang' (3.98 million copies on its first day). From the second quarter, a BTS world tour spanning Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia gets underway in earnest, and given the sector's characteristics, profit lands heavily in the second half when albums and tours are concentrated. On top of that, the one-off share-gift cost does not recur. This year's profit is therefore best seen as a structural rebound from last year's loss to a sizable profit—a read that reflects not a simple quadrupling of one quarter but a trajectory in which the album's strong showing is already booked and the tour is layered on in the second half. Meanwhile, there is no basis to expect this recovery to be lower than next year, so there is no signal to view now as a cycle top.
Recent disclosures show this transition plainly. The preliminary-results disclosure on April 29 confirmed a record first-quarter revenue and adjusted operating profit of ₩58.5 billion, and the May 21 disclosure of a 'gift received from a related party' supports that the cause of the first-quarter headline loss was the largest shareholder's share gift (in the nature of employee compensation, a one-off accounting cost). On May 19 a treasury-share acquisition decision was disclosed, signaling a willingness to return capital to shareholders, and on May 29 a corporate governance report disclosure updated governance information. Reports of changes in the holdings of the largest shareholder and executives (large-holding and ownership-status filings) also followed. In short, this is the point at which the earnings recovery, shareholder returns, and the nature of the one-off cost were clearly laid out in disclosures.
The observation points are clear. The strengths are (1) that BTS, a world-class IP, has reunited at full strength, so albums, tours, and merchandise all contribute at once; (2) that Weverse, a recurring-billing platform, provides support at an all-time high user level; and (3) that the first-quarter headline loss stemmed from a one-off cost that will not recur, while the adjusted core business has already rebounded strongly (+170.8%). As a result, the 'overvalued and loss-making' impression based on last year's and the first quarter's losses understates the real earnings power. The cautions are (1) that profit swings sharply with tour and comeback schedules, making quarterly results volatile; (2) the entertainment sector's inherent uncertainties, such as artist risk and the cost of developing new acts; and (3) that although the share price has already corrected sharply, a re-rating depends on second-half results delivering as expected. In short, viewed not as a 'headline loss' but as 'core business after removing one-offs plus a second-half tour,' this is a strong stock, and especially strong under conditions where the comeback and tour cycle runs smoothly.
🔎 Valuation vs peers Fairly valued
The three large listed Korean entertainment companies (built on music IP); HYBE adds a major global IP (BTS) and its own platform (Weverse) on top of that structure.
| Peer | P/E | P/B | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|
| JYP Entertainment | 10.43x | 2.68x | 19.68% |
| SM Entertainment | 4.86x | 1.69x | 13.12% |
Peers JYP and SM trade at low P/E ratios on a profitable base, but HYBE's last-year and first-quarter losses mean a trailing P/E cannot even be calculated, and looking only at P/B and loss metrics it appears 'overvalued.' However, this loss is due to a one-off, non-cash cost arising from the largest shareholder's share gift that will not recur, and the adjusted core business is already firmly profitable. Because 2026—when BTS reunites at full strength and the world tour gets underway in earnest—is an inflection period in which profit swings sharply back to positive, it should be viewed on forward earnings rather than trailing metrics. On a forward basis there is a premium versus peers, but it is justified by the differentiation of a world-class IP and platform revenue, so this is judged to be a 'fairly valued' range that is neither an extreme undervaluation nor an excessive overvaluation.
Price history Close · MA20 · MA60
The latest close is ₩180,700 and the market capitalization is ₩7.8 trillion. The price sits below its 20-day moving average (₩196,445) and below its 60-day moving average (₩210,778). It is under both its short- and medium-term moving averages, so the trend looks subdued. The RSI (a supplementary indicator that gauges the strength of gains versus losses over the past 14 days on a 0-100 scale) is 42.2, a neutral level. The one-month change is -22.1%, the three-month change is -26.7%, and the position relative to the 52-week high is -55.3%. Relative strength versus the KOSPI is 8 (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 7% of all stocks. Over the past three months it lagged the index by 11.7%. 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 -11.72% / 6M -60.21% / 12M -62.71%
Key metrics Computed vs sector median
Valuation
A net loss makes the P/E an unreliable valuation gauge. The P/B of 2.35x is above the sector median (1.92x).
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 -7.3%, below the sector average (5.0%). The operating margin is 1.9%. The debt ratio is 70.0%, so the financial structure is stable.
Growth FY2025 · annual report (consolidated)
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.5B | $1.6B | $1.9B | +17.48% ↑ faster |
| Operating profit | $207.7M | $129.3M | $34.6M | -73.20% ↓ slower |
| Net profit | $131.5M | $6.6M | -$166.7M | -2629.70% ↓ slower |
| 5-year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $882.3M | $1.2B | $1.5B | $1.6B | $1.9B |
| Operating profit | $133.6M | $166.4M | $207.7M | $129.3M | $34.6M |
| Net profit | $98.9M | $33.7M | $131.5M | $6.6M | -$166.7M |
| Revenue CAGR | 4-yr avg 20.52% | ||||
Revenue rose 17.5% year over year (2023 ₩2.2 trillion → 2024 ₩2.3 trillion → 2025 ₩2.6 trillion), and the three-year trend is 'rising'. The pace of growth also quickened from the prior year. Operating profit fell 73.2% year over year. The decline widened. Over the 5 years on record, revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) is 20.5%. The two-year revenue CAGR is 10.3%. In the most recent quarter (Q1 2026), revenue was 39.5% higher than the same period a year earlier.
Latest quarterly results Source Q1 2026 · vs year-ago
Technical indicators Computed
What stands out
- Revenue grew 17.5% year over year, a sign of growth.
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.
- The price is high versus peers, so expectations already appear priced in.
Recent news & events searched · sourced
- 2026-04-29EarningsFirst-quarter 2026 consolidated preliminary results: revenue of ₩698.3 billion (+39.5% year over year, a first-quarter record). A headline operating loss of ₩196.6 billion, but adjusted operating profit of ₩58.5 billion (+170.8%) excluding one-off costs. Sales of BTS's fifth studio album 'Arirang' were the driver.Confirms that core earnings power has already rebounded strongly. A starting point for a full-fledged earnings recovery via the BTS world tour in the second half. Source
- 2026-05-21FilingDisclosure of a gift received from a related party. The largest shareholder gifted shares to employees, generating a large one-off, non-cash accounting cost that was the main cause of the first-quarter headline operating loss.Supports that the headline loss is a non-recurring one-off item rather than a deterioration of the core business. Grounds for the normalization of profit in coming quarters. Source
- 2026-05-19FilingMaterial-fact report (treasury-share acquisition decision). A decision to return capital to shareholders through a share buyback.Confirms a willingness to return capital to shareholders during a price-correction phase. Positive for medium-term supply-demand and sentiment. Source
- 2026-05-29FilingCorporate governance report disclosure. Updated governance-related information such as the board and shareholder returns.Periodic information on governance transparency. The direct earnings impact is limited, but it is reference material for investment judgment. Source
Figure cross-check computed ↔ external
Recent filings Source
- 2026-06-01OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-05-29Corporate governance report
- 2026-05-28Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-28Large-business-group status disclosure
- 2026-05-21Disclosure
- 2026-05-21OwnershipOfficers'/major-shareholders' holdings report
- 2026-05-21OwnershipOwnership-change filing
- 2026-05-21OwnershipAmended filing
- 2026-05-21OwnershipAmended filing
- 2026-05-19TreasuryMaterial-fact report
- 2026-05-15PeriodicQuarterly report
- 2026-04-29EarningsFair-disclosure notice
📖 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.