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One Company a Day #1: VM (089970)

A company most investors have never heard of, with a market cap of 2.9 trillion KRW. That gap — between how obscure the name is and how large the number is — is itself the interesting part.

VM (089970) makes cleaning and etching equipment for semiconductor fabs. Its main customer is SK Hynix.

What the company actually does

VM supplies cleaning and etching equipment used in front-end semiconductor manufacturing. Its results move together with the memory investment cycle — specifically HBM and DRAM capacity expansion.

Equipment makers carry a built-in lag: there's a gap between when an order comes in and when it actually shows up in reported results.

The numbers

  • Revenue growth, trailing four quarters: +169%
  • Weekly moving averages (4/13/26/52-week) in bullish alignment for 23 straight weeks
  • Foreign ownership: down from 13.9% to 9.9%
VM (089970) recent price trend
VM (089970) — recent price trend

The growth rate isn't overheated so much as it reflects standing early in the cycle — results are tracking the HBM/DRAM buildout as it happens.

Where the signals diverge

The National Pension Service's ownership trend is the detail worth watching most: 5.05% in January, 7.05% in April, 8.05% in July — three consecutive quarters of accumulation.

VM (089970) foreign ownership trend
Foreign ownership trend, declining even as the pension fund buys

Foreign investors have been trimming their stake while the pension fund keeps adding — two different investor bases reading the same stock differently.

What to watch

VM (089970) highlighted on the Cash Flow Radar 3D valuation chart
Cash Flow Radar 3D — valuation position vs. the broader market

Two things going forward: whether SK Hynix keeps up its pace of capex, and how much of the current revenue growth actually converts into operating margin.

If order flow and margin both hold up, the growth story continues. If either one cracks, the stock is likely to react first.


This is a data summary, not investment advice. Figures are sourced from public disclosures and exchange data at the time of writing and may have changed since. Do your own research before making any investment decision.

Originally tracked as part of K-Chain Radar's daily value-chain series — follow along on X (@KChainRadar).

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