VK shares soared more than 7% amid data center news

Shares of the Russian technology company VK (VKCO), which owns social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, messenger Max and other services, on Monday, October 12, at the peak rose by 7.62% compared to the close of Friday, to е134.2 per paper. This is evidenced by the trading data of the Moscow Exchange.

By 20:45 GMT, the growth of securities slowed to 6.6%, and the price fell to .132.95 per share.

Leading analyst of Freedom Global Natalia Milchakova noted that the growth of shares in the IT sector, primarily shares of companies providing cloud services, may be associated with statements by the head of the Ministry of Digital Services Maksut Shadayev that the Ministry of Digital Services together with the Ministry of Defense are developing measures to protect the infrastructure of Russian data centers. Shares of VK, one of Yandex’s biggest competitors, including in the cloud services segment, responded to the minister’s statement with a noticeable rise. Given previous attacks — first on Wildberries and then on its rival Ozon — infrastructure risks to the sector remain.

In “Finam” also do not exclude that the problems of “Yandex”, one of the main competitors of VK, could contribute to the growth of demand for shares. “In such situations, the market often lays a potential flow of customers, traffic and capital in favor of competitors of the affected company,” said Dmitry Lozovoy. He recalled that a similar dynamics was observed in the shares of the Ozon marketplace: the paper quickly played back the initial decline after attacks on warehouses, as the infrastructure of Wildberries suffered noticeably more.

Anastasia Popova, an expert at BCS World of Investments, also recalled that VK data centers continue to work, and Yandex previously agreed, including with the provider VK Cloud, to place part of its customers’ services.

At the same time, as Natalia Milchakova emphasized, even more than VK shares, today the shares of a small company providing services in the field of data centers (data center) - Arenadata - have grown. These securities also at the peak rose by 7.5%, to е95.5. However, for Arenadata, if the risks are realized, the cost of recovery may be more critical than, for example, for VK, the analyst warned.

Finam analyst Dmitry Lozovoy concludes that in general, the Russian market is now experiencing a classic rotation of capital: after a strong growth in the oil and gas sector, investors began to shift into securities that lagged behind the index. According to him, this is the basic mechanism of the stock market - after the revaluation of leaders, money gradually moves into cheaper and lagging assets. VK, according to Lozovoy, refers to such papers.

What will happen to VK shares: expert opinions

Natalia Milchakova also believes that VK shares are significantly undervalued and have long-term growth potential. Within a year, the issuer's shares, according to Freedom Global, could rise to у345.

Finam expects increased interest in VK in the near future, especially if the company’s competitor continues to have problems. However, after such a sharp one-day growth, local profit fixing cannot be ruled out, analysts believe.

Earlier, Ekaterina Krylova, managing expert of the PSB Analytical and Expertise Center, reported that VK shares came out of a protracted consolidation from September 17 and in general they have good potential for growth. However, for further growth of securities, clear drivers are needed, for example, strong reporting by VK for the third quarter of 2026.

Milchakova shares a similar conclusion. The analyst does not rule out a revision of the target price of the company's shares depending on whether the results coincide with expectations.

VK is the largest Russian technology company by number of users. According to the company, its products and services are used by 97% of the RuNet audience.

In the second quarter of 2026, VK’s revenue grew 17% year-on-year to .43.5 billion. EBITDA increased by 41% year-on-year to .7.6 billion. The company's net profit was ист328 million. Net loss in the first half of the year decreased three-year-on-year to е3.8 billion.