S.M. Entertainment Co. stocks took a beating on Friday, October 10, as news broke that Luhan, a member of the label's popular male idol group, EXO, reportedly filed a lawsuit seeking to terminate his contract.

This latest negative news further eroded the agency's market capitalization value to a point where rival YG Entertainment has now reportedly overtaken it in company size.

"Shares of SM - which is listed on the country's Kosdaq stock-exchange for smaller companies - dropped by the daily limit of 15% on the news of the latest lawsuit, hitting a more-than-one-year-low," says the Wall Street Journal.

This represented a price drop of 5,450 KRW with the stock closing at 31,200 KRW per share.

Negative market sentiment dragged down the stocks quickly, with Koreaboo reporting that just within fifteen minutes of Luhan's actions being revealed, SM stocks dropped by approximately 3,100 KRW.

The Luhan fiasco is the latest in a string of idol woes that has pummeled SM stocks, beginning in May when Kris, another EXO member and Chinese subgroup EXO-M leader, filed a lawsuit. This plunged SM stocks to roughly 30% below their normal prices, according to Koreaboo.

Then just last month, Girls' Generation member Jessica was allegedly forced out of the company due to conflicts arising from her fashion business.

"Combined with the news of Jessica's departure, this Luhan issue has now set SM 19% below the prices seen at the beginning of last month," says Koreaboo.

With this latest stock price decline, SM finds itself slipping behind rival agency YG Entertainment in market value.

"Just today, SM dropped a total of 5,450 KRW (around 15%) and is now trading at 31,200 KRW (around $29) a share, whereas YG is trading at 49,350 KRW (around $46) a share. Currently on the KOSDAQ market capitalization list, YG ranks at 25 while SM ranks at 32," reports Allkpop.

Market capitalization is used by the investment community to determine a company's size, and is calculated by multiplying the current market price of one share - in this case 31,200 KRW -- by the company's shares outstanding.