Samsung Electronics has put in one of its strongest monthly runs in years, gaining 27% over the past month and 6.5% in the past week alone — yet its closest correlated peers spent the same week in reverse.
The peer divergence is the most striking feature of this week's setup. Samsung's Taiwanese tech correlates — a cluster of TSEC-listed hardware and semiconductor names — all fell on the week, with losses ranging from 2% to nearly 7%. One peer dropped almost 7%. Samsung went the other way, adding 6.5%. That kind of decoupling, sustained across a full week, suggests the rally is being driven by something specific to the Korean name rather than a broad regional semiconductor re-rating.
The lending market confirms this is not a short-driven story. Borrow availability is essentially unlimited — nearly two billion shares remain available to lend — and the share of float on loan is negligible at 0.03%. Cost to borrow has eased roughly 29% over the past month, now running at 0.63%, down from above 1% in late March. There is no squeeze pressure, no short covering to attribute the gains to. What little short interest exists is among the lightest in the universe: ORTEX's short-score rank sits at the 97th percentile for "least shorted," and the days-to-cover rank is similarly in the 96th percentile. Positioning is unambiguously one-directional — long.
The analyst community is also constructive, though no recent target changes are on record. The consensus price target is approximately KRW 428,000, implying around 25% upside from the current KRW 343,000 close. Factor scores reinforce the bull case: EPS momentum has been especially strong, ranking in the 87th percentile over 30 days and the 96th over 90 days. EPS surprise sits at the 83rd percentile — the company has been consistently beating estimates. The dividend score ranks in the 92nd percentile, underpinned by a quarterly cash dividend program that has continued without interruption. Valuation looks less demanding than the momentum suggests: the trailing P/E is roughly 6.7x and EV/EBITDA has drifted down to around 4.9x over the past month, both well below global semiconductor peers.
Insider activity has been a low-key but consistent positive signal. Over the past 90 days, insiders have been net buyers, accumulating a combined net position worth roughly $2.4 million. The trades are small in dollar terms relative to the company's size — Samsung's market cap runs in the hundreds of trillions of won — but the directional signal is clear: division presidents, managing directors, and vice presidents have been adding to positions as the stock moved from the KRW 260-270,000 range in May toward current levels. No sales of scale have been recorded.
On the institutional side, the ownership picture is stable but not static. BlackRock added roughly 1.1 million shares through May, Vanguard added about 1.4 million, and Capital Research and Management made the most notable move, adding nearly 7.8 million shares through late May. Samsung Life Insurance trimmed modestly. The overall holder base of 184 institutional names has not shifted dramatically, which is typical for a stock of this liquidity and profile.
The next formal catalyst is Q2 earnings, scheduled for July 24. The most recent print, in late April, saw the stock rise 2.9% the following day and 20% over the following five sessions — a striking five-day reaction that likely reflects the broader May recovery in Korean tech rather than earnings alone. With the stock now trading 27% above where it was a month ago, the July print will be watched closely for whether the memory cycle recovery narrative — which appears to be the primary driver of the re-rating — is showing up in actual numbers.
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