SKHY Q3 Earnings: SK Hynix's 632% Profit Jump Is a Price Story

SK Hynix reported record third-quarter results on Oct. 28, 2026, Korean time, which was after the US close on Oct. 27. SKHY, its US-listed ADR, jumped after hours.

The headline numbers:

• Operating profit was ₩83.33 trillion (about $62.8 billion), up 632% from a year earlier and about 8% above the ₩76.96 trillion consensus.
• Revenue topped ₩104.6 trillion.
• The company also announced plans to return about ₩100 trillion (roughly $75 billion) to shareholders in 2026.

Most of the beat came from higher memory prices rather than from selling more chips. The ₩100 trillion figure is a full-year plan, not cash already paid out. This article breaks down both, plus what the long-term HBM contracts lock in, and how SKHY trades on WEEX.

SKHY Q3 Earnings by the Numbers

These are preliminary K-IFRS figures for the third quarter of 2026:

• Revenue: ₩104.62 trillion, up 328% year over year and 32% from Q2. The forecast was ₩98.23 trillion.
• Operating profit: ₩83.33 trillion, up 632% year over year and 38% from Q2.
• Operating margin: 80%, up from 76% in Q2 and 47% a year earlier.
• Net income: ₩39.78 trillion, well below the roughly ₩61.29 trillion forecast.
• Balance sheet: cash of ₩114.5 trillion and net cash of ₩98.7 trillion.

The net-income miss deserves attention. SK Hynix booked about ₩32.6 trillion in non-operating losses, from foreign-exchange and investment-valuation swings. The chip business beat expectations. What sits below operating profit did not.

Was SK Hynix's Profit Beat Driven by Price or Volume?

Mostly price. On the earnings call, SK Hynix said:

• DRAM: shipments by volume rose about 10% from Q2, while the average selling price rose by a high-20s percentage.
• NAND: shipments by volume fell slightly from Q2 as the company shifted toward higher-value enterprise SSDs, while prices rose in the mid-20s percent range.

For DRAM, that means prices did roughly three times the work of volume. Server DDR5 shipments did grow more than 40% from Q2, and HBM4, the newest generation of the high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, reached full mass production.

The practical takeaway: when profits are driven by price, earnings swing with the memory cycle. Margins expand quickly when supply is tight and shrink just as quickly when it isn't. That makes the contract terms below the key question for SKHY.

HBM4 and Long-Term Contracts: How Much Is Locked In?

SK Hynix disclosed several forward-looking items on Oct. 28:

• Long-term agreements: signed with 14 major customers, including global cloud providers, covering more than half of total production capacity for 2027 and 2028. The contracts typically run five years.
• Pricing: prices move with market conditions within ranges agreed with each customer. That locks in volume more firmly than it locks in margin.
• HBM4 outlook: the company expects HBM4 to overtake HBM3E in both shipments and revenue in Q4, with yields running above plan.
• Supply and demand: management expects supply to stay short of demand through 2030. It projects 2027 demand growth in the mid-20% range for DRAM and the high teens for NAND.

All of these are company expectations, not guaranteed future profits. They reduce one risk, that customers simply stop buying, but they do not remove the price cycle.

Inside the 100 Trillion Won Shareholder Return Plan

The ₩100 trillion plan covers the whole of 2026, and it is made of several pieces in different states of completion:

• Cash dividends of at least ₩30 trillion. These include the Q3 dividend of ₩14 trillion, or ₩20,000 per share, made up of ₩10,000 in an earnings-based dividend and ₩10,000 in a special dividend funded by gains on SK Hynix's stake in Kioxia. A year-end dividend follows.
• Buybacks and cancellations of at least ₩60 trillion. This includes the August ₩40 trillion buyback, which was completed last week but whose shares have not yet been cancelled. Cancellation means the shares are permanently retired, which raises each remaining shareholder's ownership.
• The new ₩20 trillion buyback approved on Oct. 28. Only ₩10 trillion of it will be cancelled and counts toward the return target. The other roughly ₩10 trillion goes to employee compensation and is excluded.

Three distinctions matter for investors:

1. A buyback is not the same as a cancellation. Shares bought back and given to employees do not shrink the share count.
2. An announced plan is not the same as an executed one. The year-end dividend and further buybacks are still ahead.
3. Returns are tied to performance. SK Hynix's stated policy is to return at least 50% of free cash flow, with dividends following operating results.

Can SK Hynix Fund Both Expansion and Returns?

For now, yes. Net cash is ₩98.7 trillion, and capital spending is expected to rise significantly in 2027 as the first phase of the Yongin fab ramps up.

Management says it will build new fab shells early but open cleanroom capacity in stages, adjusting to demand. That staged approach is the safety valve. If memory prices soften, spending can slow before shareholder returns are cut.

Trading SKHY on WEEX: ADR Token vs. Futures

SKHY closed the Oct. 27 regular session at $145.36. It then rose 6.11% after hours to $154.24 once the results were out. A WEEX futures snapshot taken after the report showed SKHY-USDT up 6.47% over 24 hours.

• The SKHY stock token tracks the ADR price in USDT. Under WEEX's stock token trading rules, it is synthetic: holders get no dividend or voting rights. The ₩20,000 Q3 dividend and the share cancellations reach ADR holders, not token holders, except through the price. The token follows US trading sessions and is suspended on weekends and holidays.
• The SKHY-USDT futures contract adds leverage. Chasing a 6% post-earnings jump with leverage is where most losses come from. The ADR has to reprice once Korean shares trade in full on Oct. 28, and a 6% fade at 10x leverage takes 60% of margin.

What SKHY Investors Should Watch Next

The SKHY earnings beat is real, but it is driven by pricing. The ₩100 trillion return plan is real too, but it is still being carried out. The next checkpoints:

• whether DRAM prices keep rising through the long-term contract ranges;
• whether HBM4 overtakes HBM3E in Q4 as guided;
• when the ₩40 trillion and ₩10 trillion buyback tranches are actually cancelled.

You can follow SKHY on WEEX through the stock token or the futures contract.

FAQ

1. How Much Did SK Hynix Earn in Q3 2026?

Operating profit was ₩83.33 trillion (about $62.8 billion), up 632% year over year, on revenue of about ₩104.6 trillion. Net income was ₩39.78 trillion, held down by about ₩32.6 trillion in non-operating losses.

2. Is the 100 Trillion Won Shareholder Return Already Paid?

No. It is a 2026 plan made up of at least ₩30 trillion in dividends and at least ₩60 trillion in buybacks and cancellations. The year-end dividend and some cancellations are still pending.

3. Will All of SK Hynix's Buybacks Be Cancelled?

No. Of the ₩20 trillion buyback approved on Oct. 28, only ₩10 trillion will be cancelled. About ₩10 trillion is set aside for employee compensation and does not count as shareholder return.

4. Does the WEEX SKHY Token Pay the SK Hynix Dividend?

No. The SKHY stock token is synthetic and tracks the ADR price, without dividend or voting rights.