InBody Shares Fall 26.6% as Currency Swings Halve Q3 Net Profit

Shares of InBody fell 26.61% to ₩42,050 on Nov. 6, 2026, a day after the Seoul-based maker of body-composition analyzers reported that its third-quarter operating profit had nearly doubled. The one-day fall erased about ₩206 billion ($152 million) of market value on the KOSDAQ, Korea's market for smaller and growth companies, where InBody trades under code 041830.

The swing was sharp in both directions. InBody posted its preliminary results on DART, Korea's electronic disclosure system, at 2:58 p.m. on Nov. 5, about half an hour before the close, and the stock ended that day up 23.89% at ₩57,300. Measured from the Nov. 4 close of ₩46,250, the two days left the shares down 9.1%, by our calculation.

The reason was below the operating line. Operating profit rose 96.5% from a year earlier to ₩19.3 billion ($14.2 million) in July–September 2026, but net profit fell 53.1% to ₩4.4 billion ($3.2 million). Dollar amounts in this article are converted at ₩1,356.6 per dollar, the won's rate at 3:30 p.m. in Seoul on Nov. 6, 2026, as reported by Yonhap.

Consolidated preliminary figures from InBody's DART filing of Nov. 5, 2026; margins are calculated from them.

Revenue rose 19.2% from a year earlier but slipped 2.7% from the second quarter. For the first nine months of 2026, revenue grew 24.1% to ₩213.0 billion ($157.0 million) and operating profit rose 83.9% to ₩50.1 billion ($36.9 million).

The figures are not final. "This material was prepared for investors' convenience before the external auditor completed its audit, and some of its content may change during the audit," the company said in the filing (translated from Korean).

Why Net Profit Fell as Operating Profit Doubled

The same currency move pushed the two lines in opposite directions, according to two Korean brokerages. Daol Investment & Securities said a stronger won reduced the unrealized profit held in inventory at InBody's overseas subsidiaries, which lowered the cost of sales by about ₩6.2 billion ($4.6 million), the Seoul Economic Daily reported.

Without that one-off gain, Daol put operating profit at ₩13.1 billion ($9.7 million), an operating margin of 18.4%. Kiwoom Securities estimated a "normal" operating margin of 19.5% for the quarter, slightly below its 20.3% estimate for the second quarter, Edaily reported.

Below the operating line, the gap between operating profit and pre-tax profit was ₩13.9 billion ($10.2 million), by our calculation. Daol pointed to translation losses on receivables held in foreign currencies, among other items. When the won strengthens, money owed to InBody in dollars or euros is worth fewer won.

The exposure is large because InBody sells mostly abroad. Exports made up 87.3% of its ₩141.7 billion ($104.5 million) of revenue in the first half of 2026, according to its half-year report. "The company prohibits speculative foreign exchange trading," the report said (translated from Korean); it says it tries to trade in local currencies and to match the currencies of what it receives and pays.

Why the Shares Fell on Nov. 6

The whole market was falling that Friday. The benchmark KOSPI dropped 6.02% to 5,059.69 on fears that U.S. midterm results would slow data-center construction, Yonhap reported, and the KOSDAQ lost 5.03% to 644.27, according to the Asia Business Daily. Our report on the Nov. 6 sell-off covers the market move.

InBody fell more than five times as far as its index. Its high for the day, ₩48,900, was already 14.7% below the previous close, and it touched ₩40,500 before ending at ₩42,050, according to market data from the Korea Economic Daily. Shares worth ₩20.0 billion ($14.7 million) changed hands, and the close left the stock 42.8% below its 52-week high of ₩73,500.

Edaily linked the drop to the halving of net profit and to analysis that one-off accounting effects had lifted operating profit. Short sellers were not the cause. The Korea Exchange had barred short sales of InBody for Nov. 6, and it extended the ban to Nov. 9 after the stock fell more than 5% on the day of the ban, according to exchange notices carried by the Seoul Economic Daily.

Korea context: Korea reopened short selling in all listed stocks on March 31, 2025, for the first time since March 2020 for most of them, the Korea Economic Daily reported. Under the exchange's "overheated stock" rule, a stock that sees a sudden jump in short selling is barred from short sales in regular and after-hours trading for the next session. If its price falls 5% or more on that day, the ban is extended. Our guide to Korea's price limits and short-selling rules explains the system, including the 30% daily price limit.

A small treasury-share move on Nov. 5 did not add supply to the market. InBody's board approved transferring 1,658 of its own shares, 0.01% of the total, straight into its employee stock ownership association's account as performance pay. The filing said the shares would not be sold on the market and must stay deposited for four years.

Earnings Per Share

InBody's basic earnings per share (EPS), net profit attributable to shareholders divided by the weighted number of shares outstanding, was ₩2,423 ($1.79) in 2025, down 5% from ₩2,557 in 2024, according to its 2025 annual report on DART. FnGuide data on Naver Finance show lower figures, ₩2,266 for 2025 and ₩2,422 for 2024, because they appear to divide by all issued shares, including treasury shares.

The third quarter tells the same story as net profit. Profit attributable to shareholders fell 50.7% to ₩4.75 billion ($3.5 million), which works out to EPS of about ₩356 ($0.26), by our calculation, against ₩791 a year earlier, a drop of about 55%. The formal quarterly report, with the official EPS, is still to come.

For the first nine months, EPS was about ₩2,640 ($1.95), up roughly 35% from ₩1,951 a year earlier, by our calculation. Second-quarter EPS was ₩1,061, according to the half-year report, against ₩611 a year earlier.

At the Nov. 6 close of ₩42,050, the stock traded at 17.4 times 2025 EPS (18.6 times on FnGuide's figure). On trailing EPS of about ₩3,121 for the four quarters to September 2026, the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) was 13.5, by our calculation.

The FnGuide consensus, an average of brokerage forecasts, expected third-quarter operating profit of ₩14.9 billion, so the actual figure came in about 30% higher. It expected profit attributable to shareholders of ₩12.2 billion and EPS of ₩905, so the actual result was about 61% lower. The consensus for full-year 2026 EPS, ₩3,514 ($2.59), puts the stock at 12.0 times forward earnings; reaching it would need fourth-quarter EPS of about ₩870, by our calculation.

What InBody Makes

InBody's machines measure muscle, fat and water in the body; users stand barefoot on footplates and hold metal handgrips. Professional body-composition analyzers made up 70.8% of first-half 2026 revenue, home devices 13.3%, and blood-pressure monitors and management software 3.4% each. Its customers include hospitals, fitness centers, obesity clinics, the military and schools.

The company was founded in May 1996 as Biospace and took the name of its product in September 2014. It has been listed on the KOSDAQ since December 2000 and has 19 subsidiaries, 14 of them abroad, according to its half-year report. The United States was its largest market in the first half, at 36% of revenue, followed by Europe at 14% and Korea at 13%.

Obesity drugs have changed its U.S. business. "Since 2023, when Wegovy was commercialized, hospitals have emerged as InBody's largest customer in the United States," Kim Choong-hyun, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, said in a May 2026 report, Money Today reported (translated from Korean). Doctors use the machines to check how much muscle patients lose while they lose weight.

In the third quarter, U.S. revenue rose 32% from a year earlier to ₩26.3 billion ($19.4 million) despite the stronger won, Daol said. Mexico grew 43% and China 24%, while sales in Korea fell 15% to ₩8.6 billion ($6.3 million) on weaker demand for professional devices. "Top-line growth centered on the U.S. and emerging regions is continuing," said Park Jong-hyun, an analyst at Daol (translated from Korean).

Who Owns InBody

Chief Executive Cha Ki-chul, who has run InBody since 1996, held 18.14% at June 30, 2026, and his family and affiliated executives held 29.12% in total, the half-year report shows. Naver Corp., the Korean internet company, held 8.50%.

Foreign funds hold a large block. Fidelity Management & Research and related funds owned 9.82% as of Oct. 30, 2026, according to a filing posted on Nov. 5. Korea's National Pension Service reported a 5.30% stake as of Aug. 6, 2026.

His son, Cha In-jun, sold 120,000 shares at ₩54,860 each in an after-hours trade on Sept. 15, 2026, to repay money he had borrowed to pay gift tax, according to his filing. That cut the family group's stake to 28.20%. The Nov. 6 close was 23% below his sale price.

InBody paid ₩8.0 billion ($5.9 million) in dividends for 2025, a payout ratio of 26.69%, and its value-up disclosure targets a payout of about 25% of consolidated net profit. The 2025 dividend of ₩600 a share equals a yield of 1.4% at the Nov. 6 close, by our calculation. Our explainer on Korea's value-up program describes these voluntary plans.

What Analysts Expect

Daol, which gave no rating or target price, expects fourth-quarter revenue of ₩71.6 billion ($52.8 million) and operating profit of ₩10.6 billion ($7.8 million), 45% less than in the third quarter, as the one-off gain disappears and year-end bonuses lift costs. It forecasts 2027 operating profit of ₩71.2 billion ($52.5 million).

"The view of InBody as a direct beneficiary of the growing number of people prescribed GLP-1 drugs is still valid," Park said, referring to the class of obesity drugs that includes Wegovy (translated from Korean). Kiwoom's Shin Min-soo was more cautious about margins. "In the fourth quarter there is no tariff refund, and the currency effect is also expected to shrink from the third quarter, so we forecast a gross margin of 76.5%," Shin said, according to Edaily (translated from Korean).

"Taking into account the seasonality of costs, such as year-end bonus payments, we expect an operating margin of 15.8%," Shin added (translated from Korean). That would be well below the 27.1% reported for the third quarter.

The most recent published targets came before the results. Sangsangin Securities raised its target to ₩85,000 from ₩75,000 with a Buy rating in October 2026, the Korea Economic Daily reported, while Mirae Asset raised its target to ₩74,000 from ₩55,000 on May 28, 2026. Sangsangin had estimated third-quarter operating profit of ₩14.5 billion, below the ₩19.3 billion InBody reported.

What to Watch

The full quarterly report comes first. Korea's capital markets law gives listed companies 45 days after a quarter ends to file it, which puts InBody's report in mid-November 2026. It should show the size of the currency losses below the operating line and the official third-quarter EPS.

After that, the questions are the ones analysts raised. Kiwoom expects a fourth-quarter operating margin of 15.8%, and Daol expects U.S. growth to continue; both will be tested when InBody reports fourth-quarter results, usually in February. The short-sale ban ends after Nov. 9 unless the exchange extends it again.

Taken together, InBody's third quarter showed a business growing in the U.S. on obesity-drug demand, with earnings per share pulled down by the same currency swing that flattered operating profit. The next dated checks are the quarterly report due in mid-November 2026 and the fourth-quarter results in early 2027.