Samsung Electronics has gone from consolidation to a full-blown re-rating — up 36% in a month, up 8.5% on the week, and trading at ₩299,000 as of May 26.
The price surge is the story. Last week's note described Samsung pulling back to ₩275,500 after April's explosive 20% move. What followed instead was another leg higher. The stock has now added roughly ₩83,000 in a single month — a move that has compressed shorts, re-rated multiples, and drawn the attention of a borrow market that had gone almost completely quiet.
The one genuinely new signal this week is in the lending market. Cost to borrow has jumped 32% in a week to 0.68%, reversing the collapse to 0.35% flagged in the prior note. That rate is still low in absolute terms — well below the 0.92–1.02% range that characterised March — but the direction has shifted. The borrow market had gone silent; now it is stirring again. Availability remains effectively unlimited at the system cap, with 4.24 billion shares available to lend and near-zero short positioning across the register. There is no short squeeze risk here. What the CTB nudge more likely reflects is incremental hedging demand from institutional holders who have seen a 36% gain in four weeks and want to manage downside without selling.
Valuation has moved sharply. The trailing P/E now reads 6.3x — up roughly 5% over 30 days as the price has re-rated ahead of earnings. Price-to-book has climbed to 2.4x, up nearly 0.4x over the same period. EV/EBITDA at 4.5x remains undemanding for a global semiconductor franchise. The analyst mean price target of ₩350,506 implies roughly 17% further upside from current levels, and recent ORTEX factor scores underscore the momentum: EPS momentum ranks in the 96th percentile over 90 days, EPS surprise in the 83rd, and the short score ranks in the top 97th percentile — meaning Samsung carries less bearish positioning than almost every comparable stock in the universe. There have been no recent analyst rating changes to report in the data.
Earnings history adds useful context. The most recent print — April 30 — delivered a +2.9% next-day move and a remarkable +20.1% over the following five sessions. That five-day reaction is part of what explains the current price level. Samsung beat Q1 estimates on chip demand recovery and raised full-year guidance on AI server processor demand, with memory margins still under some pressure but trending better. The next earnings event is scheduled for July 24, giving the market roughly two months to decide whether the current multiple is justified.
On the ownership side, the picture is mostly stable. Samsung Life Insurance trimmed 6.4 million shares in its most recent filing, and Samsung Fire & Marine cut a further 1.1 million. BlackRock, Vanguard, and Capital Research all added modestly. The insider register shows a handful of small director-level purchases in May — mostly sub-$100,000 in value — with one vice president selling around 2,200 shares across three trades in May at prices well below the current ₩299,000. None of these moves are large enough to change the thesis, but the small director buys at ₩269,500–₩278,000 now look well-timed.
Among correlated peers, A005070 on KOSE gained 10.9% on the week — broadly in line with Samsung's 8.5%. Several Taiwanese names in the peer set posted similar weekly gains of 10–11%, suggesting the broader Asian semiconductor complex is re-rating together rather than Samsung outperforming idiosyncratically.
The setup heading into late May is one of strong momentum with thin short positioning and a borrow market that has just started to wake up — the July 24 earnings date becomes the next focal point for whether that momentum has fundamental legs.
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