BTS world tour sparks analyst upgrades, pushes Hybe shares to four-year high
Shares of South Korean entertainment agency Hybe hit a four-year high on Monday, rising as much as 9.5% after multiple brokerages reportedly upgraded their target prices on the stock following the announcement of a BTS world tour. The gains added more than 1 trillion South Korean won ($677 million) to the company’s market value, marking its highest level since November 2021. The rally followed Hybe’s Jan. 14 announcement that K-pop giant BTS will embark on a world tour spanning 2026 and 2027. Nomura on Jan. 14 upgraded its target price on the stock to 410,000 won from 354,000 won, citing the “larger than expected” scale of the world tour. “The scale of the world tour (79 shows) scheduled for the fifth album is 27% bigger than that of the previous cycle…the announced scale exceeds investors’ expectation for about 65 tours,” analysts Angela Hong and Won Kang wrote in their note. The seven-member group is set to perform 79 shows across 23 countries in its first leg of the tour, starting in Seoul on April 9. “Higher-margin regions,” namely North America and Europe, account for 44% of the announced tour dates, which should support overall profitability, the analysts said. That view was echoed in a Jan. 13 note from HSBC, which said that K-pop ticket prices remain relatively low in South Korea and Japan but tend to rise as artists expand the scale of their overseas tours. “In particular, North America and Europe command structurally higher ticket prices, making scale expansion in these regions increasingly important.” The tour announcement also said that more stops, including cities in Japan and the Middle East, would be announced later. These would provide further upside to Hybe’s earnings in 2027, should the additional shows materialise, Nomura said. The Korea Economic Daily reported Monday that attendance estimates for the concerts were revised sharply higher, with total audiences this year projected at around 4.5 million, surpassing earlier forecasts of 3 million to 3.5 million across about 65 concerts. Ahead of the tour announcement, CGS International and HSBC raised their target prices on Jan. 13, citing expectations for renewed BTS activities as a catalyst. CGS lifted its target to 430,000 won from 360,000 won, while HSBC raised its target to 420,000 won from 390,000 won. HSBC named Hybe its “preferred stock” in the K-pop sector, pointing to the “long-awaited resumption of BTS’s activities.”
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