# Posco Chemical (003670.KO)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/003670.KO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z. Financial observations: FY2014–FY2025.

Listing currency: KRW. Reporting currency: KRW.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: KRW 173,000.00 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 3 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 3

- Years with a net loss: 1

- Operating margin variation: 0.63×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 0.08×

- FY2017: 0.09×

- FY2018: 0.08×

- FY2019: 0.06×

- FY2020: 0.04×

- FY2021: 0.06×

- FY2022: 0.05×

- FY2023: 0.01×

- FY2024: 0.00×

- FY2025: 0.01×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 4.3pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 5.0%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 0.4%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 4.3 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 10.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 6.4%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 20.4%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -4.1%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 15.2%

- FY2017: 17.7%

- FY2018: 12.6%

- FY2019: 6.4%

- FY2020: 3.4%

- FY2021: 5.2%

- FY2022: 4.8%

- FY2023: 0.6%

- FY2024: 0.0%

- FY2025: 0.4%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- working capital as a share of revenue rose more than 10pp and ends positive

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: -35.60×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: KRW -3.60T

- Net income, five-year total: KRW 101B

- Return on incremental invested capital: -0.2%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 2.3 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 16.5 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 30.5%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: -0.54×

- FY2022: 0.84×

- FY2023: -8.03×

- FY2024: 9.91×

- FY2025: -40.02×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2025 (8 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 15.2% vs 0.4%

- Per-share earnings: 1674.16 to 361.50 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 7.8%

- Market cap gain: KRW 14.37T

- Cumulative retained earnings: KRW 176B

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 7.8%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value growth: -22.5%

- Per-share value change: KRW -1K

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: KRW 2K

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: KRW 361.50

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.40

- Average buyback yield: 0.2%

- Buyback history: 4 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: KRW 42B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: KRW 511B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 15.2%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 0.4%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: KRW 2K

- FY2018: KRW 2K

- FY2019: KRW 2K

- FY2020: KRW 484.90

- FY2021: KRW 2K

- FY2022: KRW 1K

- FY2023: KRW 361.50

- FY2024: KRW -3K

- FY2025: KRW 362.72

### accounting: fail

- earnings not backed by cash

- Sloan accruals: 0.7%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.05×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: No

- Operating cash / earnings: -1.04×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.01×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -5.7%

- FY2017: 5.7%

- FY2018: 5.0%

- FY2019: 2.2%

- FY2020: -0.4%

- FY2021: 0.8%

- FY2022: 3.9%

- FY2023: 7.5%

- FY2024: -11.1%

- FY2025: 0.7%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 66% since Jul 2023 · sales -20.6%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:05.804Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales -20.6%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: KRW 1.12T 

- FY2017: KRW 1.20T 

- FY2018: KRW 1.38T 

- FY2019: KRW 1.48T 

- FY2020: KRW 1.57T 

- FY2021: KRW 1.99T 

- FY2022: KRW 3.30T 

- FY2023: KRW 4.76T 

- FY2024: KRW 3.70T 

- FY2025: KRW 2.94T 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 8.7%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: 12.6% 

- FY2017: 13.0% 

- FY2018: 12.0% 

- FY2019: 11.2% 

- FY2020: 9.2% 

- FY2021: 12.0% 

- FY2022: 10.1% 

- FY2023: 5.4% 

- FY2024: 6.4% 

- FY2025: 8.7% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in electrical equipment & parts; annual sales are KRW 2.9 trillion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2025: revenue 2938698184390; grossProfit 256218472360; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 5.4% to 8.7% during 2023–25; it earns 5% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 5.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 6.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 8.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.15193197338780284],[2017,0.17721864249568836],[2018,0.12638778163472592],[2019,0.06393488464958692],[2020,0.03384857942762653],[2021,0.05210376616665175],[2022,0.04810497541859609],[2023,0.006013474976935546],[2024,0.00009684342056288146],[2025,0.0035717352532737357]]; median 0.05010437079262392. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back KRW 1.7 billion of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2016: growth capex 0; upkeep 23475220420; owner earnings 34684929910. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2022: growth capex 566879970190; upkeep 92266865000; owner earnings 99909127774. Growth capex / owner earnings = 5.67395575179391.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); Dividend observations: [[2016,11814000000],[2017,17721000000],[2018,20758928400],[2019,23746410000],[2020,24715148000],[2021,18463598860],[2022,23447659200],[2023,23939612490],[2024,22113732250],[2025,1081938000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); FY2025: cash repurchases 1726047950 KRW.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 63% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); 003670.KO SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 63.044999999999995 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 5.2 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:35:40.596Z); Closing price 173000 KRW; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 33039.05858839318; price multiple 5.23622667810444. FY2025 cash earnings/share -14514.472711881603. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (KRW per share)

- 2016-10: KRW 10,943.61 per share

- 2016-11: KRW 11,265.48 per share

- 2016-12: KRW 11,035.57 per share

- 2017-01: KRW 11,127.54 per share

- 2017-02: KRW 12,047.17 per share

- 2017-03: KRW 14,116.34 per share

- 2017-04: KRW 13,242.69 per share

- 2017-05: KRW 13,472.60 per share

- 2017-06: KRW 14,116.34 per share

- 2017-07: KRW 19,266.27 per share

- 2017-08: KRW 30,347.83 per share

- 2017-09: KRW 27,267.06 per share

- 2017-10: KRW 25,841.64 per share

- 2017-11: KRW 31,819.24 per share

- 2017-12: KRW 36,601.32 per share

- 2018-01: KRW 45,429.78 per share

- 2018-02: KRW 40,969.57 per share

- 2018-03: KRW 43,636.50 per share

- 2018-04: KRW 33,842.43 per share

- 2018-05: KRW 41,107.51 per share

- 2018-06: KRW 40,509.75 per share

- 2018-07: KRW 45,383.80 per share

- 2018-08: KRW 55,637.68 per share

- 2018-09: KRW 67,133.07 per share

- 2018-10: KRW 59,867.99 per share

- 2018-11: KRW 62,259.03 per share

- 2018-12: KRW 58,580.50 per share

- 2019-01: KRW 54,718.05 per share

- 2019-02: KRW 63,362.59 per share

- 2019-03: KRW 55,361.79 per share

- 2019-04: KRW 52,694.86 per share

- 2019-05: KRW 50,027.93 per share

- 2019-06: KRW 49,292.23 per share

- 2019-07: KRW 44,786.04 per share

- 2019-08: KRW 48,464.56 per share

- 2019-09: KRW 40,601.71 per share

- 2019-10: KRW 44,188.28 per share

- 2019-11: KRW 44,234.26 per share

- 2019-12: KRW 45,291.83 per share

- 2020-01: KRW 52,786.83 per share

- 2020-02: KRW 50,487.75 per share

- 2020-03: KRW 40,279.84 per share

- 2020-04: KRW 47,636.89 per share

- 2020-05: KRW 51,039.53 per share

- 2020-06: KRW 69,064.30 per share

- 2020-07: KRW 69,524.11 per share

- 2020-08: KRW 81,847.17 per share

- 2020-09: KRW 77,065.09 per share

- 2020-10: KRW 67,776.82 per share

- 2020-11: KRW 84,146.25 per share

- 2020-12: KRW 101,336.77 per share

- 2021-01: KRW 131,055.72 per share

- 2021-02: KRW 153,953.94 per share

- 2021-03: KRW 151,030.76 per share

- 2021-04: KRW 145,184.41 per share

- 2021-05: KRW 141,286.84 per share

- 2021-06: KRW 140,312.45 per share

- 2021-07: KRW 150,056.37 per share

- 2021-08: KRW 151,517.96 per share

- 2021-09: KRW 172,467.38 per share

- 2021-10: KRW 141,774.04 per share

- 2021-11: KRW 153,466.74 per share

- 2021-12: KRW 140,312.45 per share

- 2022-01: KRW 107,670.32 per share

- 2022-02: KRW 110,593.49 per share

- 2022-03: KRW 117,414.24 per share

- 2022-04: KRW 132,517.31 per share

- 2022-05: KRW 127,158.16 per share

- 2022-06: KRW 104,259.94 per share

- 2022-07: KRW 128,132.55 per share

- 2022-08: KRW 163,697.86 per share

- 2022-09: KRW 146,158.80 per share

- 2022-10: KRW 194,391.20 per share

- 2022-11: KRW 212,904.65 per share

- 2022-12: KRW 175,390.56 per share

- 2023-01: KRW 218,263.81 per share

- 2023-02: KRW 215,340.63 per share

- 2023-03: KRW 265,521.82 per share

- 2023-04: KRW 326,421.32 per share

- 2023-05: KRW 341,037.20 per share

- 2023-06: KRW 343,960.37 per share

- 2023-07: KRW 513,504.58 per share

- 2023-08: KRW 437,989.20 per share

- 2023-09: KRW 350,293.92 per share

- 2023-10: KRW 230,443.71 per share

- 2023-11: KRW 316,190.20 per share

- 2023-12: KRW 349,806.73 per share

- 2024-01: KRW 247,008.37 per share

- 2024-02: KRW 308,882.26 per share

- 2024-03: KRW 295,727.97 per share

- 2024-04: KRW 276,240.13 per share

- 2024-05: KRW 244,085.20 per share

- 2024-06: KRW 251,880.33 per share

- 2024-07: KRW 206,083.91 per share

- 2024-08: KRW 209,007.08 per share

- 2024-09: KRW 243,598.00 per share

- 2024-10: KRW 218,751.00 per share

- 2024-11: KRW 167,887.74 per share

- 2024-12: KRW 138,461.10 per share

- 2025-01: KRW 139,143.18 per share

- 2025-02: KRW 137,681.59 per share

- 2025-03: KRW 117,219.36 per share

- 2025-04: KRW 121,701.56 per share

- 2025-05: KRW 113,614.11 per share

- 2025-06: KRW 126,400.00 per share

- 2025-07: KRW 142,500.00 per share

- 2025-08: KRW 141,300.00 per share

- 2025-09: KRW 143,500.00 per share

- 2025-10: KRW 216,500.00 per share

- 2025-11: KRW 206,500.00 per share

- 2025-12: KRW 187,000.00 per share

- 2026-01: KRW 223,500.00 per share

- 2026-02: KRW 247,000.00 per share

- 2026-03: KRW 203,500.00 per share

- 2026-04: KRW 252,000.00 per share

- 2026-05: KRW 245,500.00 per share

- 2026-06: KRW 175,600.00 per share

- 2026-07: KRW 137,700.00 per share

- 2026-08: KRW 200,500.00 per share

- 2026-09: KRW 178,800.00 per share

- 2026-10: KRW 177,200.00 per share

## Annual estimated value (KRW per share)

- FY2018: low KRW 5,878.43 per share, central KRW 6,444.03 per share, high KRW 7,196.96 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.