Seegene Inc., South Korean developer of coronavirus test kits, on Thursday reported a sharp rise in second-quarter operating profit, driven by strong sales.

Seegene said its April-June operating profit reached a record 169 billion won ($142.4 million) over sales of 274.8 billion won. Net profit also jumped to 131.6 billion won.

The company said demand for COVID-19 test kit products grew explosively and both top and bottom-line results doubled or tripled from Q1 results.

Seegene’s first-half sales came to 356.6 billion won, with an operating profit of 208.7 billion won, and net profit 165.3 billion won, which are a triple jump from full-year results in 2019.

Shares of Seegene fell 19.11 percent to close Friday at 221,400 won on profit-taking.

Celltrion Healthcare, the marketing arm of Celltrion, too reported surprising earnings for the quarter. The pharmaceutical company said its consolidated second-quarter operating profit soared by a whopping 838 percent on year to 86.8 billion won over sales of 420.3 billion won. Net profit jumped by 448 percent to 46.4 billion won.

NH Investment & Securities was prompted to raise its target price for Celltrion Healthcare by 18 percent from 110,000 won to 130,0000 won. Kiwoom Securities and Shinhan Investment went further to 150,000 won.

By Pulse

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