Kakao Pay, entering the payment market based on AI, stock price rises expected

NH Investment & Securities commented on the 21st that, thanks to the growth of its securities subsidiaries, Kakao Pay’s performance in the first quarter of this year is likely to surpass market expectations. Additionally, some analysts believe that through recent participation in the X402 Foundation, it has gained new momentum in AI-based payment fields, thus maintaining its original buy recommendation and a target stock price of 82k won.

NH Investment & Securities analyst Yoon Yoo-dong believes that Kakao Pay’s financial services division is maintaining high growth centered around Kakao Pay Securities. It is expected that usage in lifestyle-focused platforms such as “Delivery Nation” will also increase, and the long-term collaborative effects that have been promoted will become evident. The improvement in fintech companies’ performance is not solely dependent on the number of transactions, but is more significant when financial product brokerage, investment services, and platform cooperation expand and integrate with each other. This is interpreted as Kakao Pay building such a structure.

The earnings forecast also presents a relatively strong outlook. Analyst Yoon predicts that Kakao Pay’s consolidated operating revenue will reach 275.9 billion won in the first quarter of 2026, a 30.4% increase from the same period last year; operating profit will reach 26.1 billion won, a 490.9% increase. This exceeds the consensus, which is the average expectation in the securities industry. The especially notable growth rate in operating profit can be attributed to reduced cost burdens and an increased proportion of high-margin financial services.

A key point in this evaluation is the potential for new business ventures. Kakao Pay joined the Linux Foundation’s X402 Foundation as a founding member on the 2nd of this month. The X402 Foundation is a collaborative organization led by the U.S. virtual asset exchange Coinbase, focused on next-generation network payment protocols, aiming to develop stablecoin-based automatic payment infrastructure suitable for the AI agent era. Stablecoins are virtual assets designed to reduce price volatility and are gaining attention as a technical foundation for practical payment applications.

NH Investment & Securities emphasized that Kakao Pay is the only Korean company participating in this foundation. They explained that its early involvement in the formation of global AI payment standards positions it to gain a first-mover advantage in launching AI agent payment services or building overseas business networks in the future. This trend may indicate that Kakao Pay is evolving beyond a simple convenient payment company, fostering investment in financial platforms and next-generation digital payment infrastructure.