On the 4th, KOSPI, Samsung Electronics, and SK hynix are shown in the dealing room at the headquarters of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News

The number of small shareholders of Samsung Electronics, the ‘No. 1 by number of domestic investors’, was tallied to have fallen by about 960,000 over the past year. As it surpassed the ‘120,000-won’ level last year, many small shareholders who had long been ‘stuck’ in Samsung Electronics appear to have taken profits en masse. There are also expectations that the number of small shareholders has increased this year, as individual investors have been large net buyers of Samsung Electronics.

According to the annual report disclosed by Samsung Electronics on the 10th, the number of Samsung Electronics small shareholders was 4,195,927 as of December 31 last year. Compared with the figure at the end of the previous year (end-2024) of 5,610,210, it was down by about 964,000.

The number of shares held by small shareholders also decreased from 4,073,349,914 at the end of 2024 to 3,991,480,867 at the end of last year, by about 81.96 million shares. The ownership ratio of small shareholders also fell from 68.23% to 66.04%, a decline of 2.19 percentage points.

At the beginning of last year, the share price of Samsung Electronics was around the ‘50,000-won’ level, but it turned strong in the second half and exceeded the ‘120,000-won’ level by year-end. As it surpassed the ‘90,000-won’ level recorded in early 2021 after about four years, small shareholders of Samsung Electronics also appear to have moved en masse to ‘take profits’.

Since the start of this year, the share price of Samsung Electronics has jumped sharply, even exceeding the ‘220,000-won’ level, so the number of small shareholders likely increased significantly as well. Individual investors have been net buyers of Samsung Electronics worth 16.335 trillion won this year. This is more than twice SK hynix, the No. 2 in net purchases (7.618 trillion won), indicating a stronger ‘buy’.