Hana Securities reiterated its "Buy" rating and 12-month price target of ₩140,000 on SK Telecom (KRX: 017670) on the 9th, reaffirming it as the brokerage's top pick in the Korean telecoms sector. Based on the stock's closing price of ₩92,400 on 8th September, that target implies upside of roughly 51%.
The core of the bull case rests on SK Telecom's data-centre expansion, which the brokerage argues can grow the pool of capital available for shareholder dividends without imposing a commensurately heavy burden on capital expenditure. Despite aggressive capacity additions, a runaway increase in capex appears unlikely, and Hana analysts believe there is a good chance the company will raise its dividend per share (DPS) through a tax-exempt payout in the fourth quarter, supported by the stronger first-half results.
SK Telecom is pursuing its data-centre ambitions along two separate tracks. It has established SK Hyper, a direct subsidiary, with plans to scale domestic and international operations to an initial target of 5 gigawatts (GW). Separately, the company is spinning off SK Broadband, its fixed-line subsidiary, into two entities: SK Broadband and SK Horizon. SK Horizon will operate a portfolio of new data centres totalling 318 megawatts (MW) in capacity, including a 100MW AI data centre in Ulsan and a 75MW facility in Guro, Seoul.
Following the spin-off, SK Telecom's stake in SK Horizon is expected to be 51%. Its ownership of SK Hyper, however, could be diluted depending on the extent of any future capital injections.
Assuming annual traffic growth of 45%, Hana Securities projects SK Telecom's total data-centre capacity will reach 1.5GW by 2032. Using the company's current capacity of 140MW — which generates approximately ₩500bn in revenue — as a simple extrapolation, a 1.5GW footprint could yield revenues of around ₩5 trillion and operating profit of roughly ₩1 trillion. The brokerage is careful to note, however, that this is a crude aggregation that does not account for the special-purpose vehicle (SPV) structures through which some assets will be operated, nor for profit-sharing arrangements with co-investors.
Adjusting for the profit-distribution effect, Hana estimates SK Telecom's dividend resource base could increase by approximately ₩500bn relative to today, lifting its dividend-paying capacity by 67%. The brokerage forecasts DPS of ₩3,600 in 2026 and ₩3,800 in 2027, compared with ₩1,660 in 2025 — more than double in the space of two years.
Investors should note two important caveats. First, because SK Hyper operates through an SPV structure, revenues will not be consolidated directly into the parent's accounts; instead, returns will flow through management fees and dividends. Second, the 5GW target is ambitious enough to raise questions about whether it is achievable, and the timing and scale of the earnings contribution could fall short of the optimistic scenario.
On the financial recovery, SK Telecom appears to be emerging from a difficult period. Operating profit in 2025 is estimated at ₩1.07 trillion, a 41% plunge from ₩1.82 trillion in 2024, the result of a sharp spike in costs and one-off losses stemming from a high-profile SIM-card hacking incident earlier in the year. Hana Securities forecasts operating profit will rebound to ₩1.95 trillion in 2026, surpassing the 2024 level, and breach ₩2 trillion in 2027. Second-quarter 2026 operating profit is projected at ₩566bn, representing an operating margin of 13.0% — a clear sign of recovery.
On valuation, the stock trades at 15.7 times forecast 2026 earnings. Applying the ₩140,000 price target to the 2026 estimated earnings per share of ₩5,983 implies a target price-to-earnings multiple of around 23 times. Telecoms stocks typically derive much of their support from reliable dividend income, but the data-centre growth narrative provides a rationale for a valuation premium beyond that of a pure utility.
SK Telecom's shares have fallen roughly 26% from their 52-week high of ₩125,200 reached in 2026, to their current level of ₩92,400. With such a large gap between the current price and the target, the pace of tangible progress on the data-centre build-out and the trajectory of quarterly earnings will be the decisive variables in determining whether the stock can close that distance.