Korea Investment & Securities Co. said on the 3rd that ISU Petasys is expected to continue its growth as expanded production capacity aligns with demand for artificial intelligence (AI). It maintained its "Buy" investment opinion and raised the target price to 180,000 won from the previous 150,000 won. ISU Petasys' previous day's closing price was 127,600 won.
ISU Petasys' revenue last year on a consolidation basis was 1.0888 trillion won, up 30% from the same period a year earlier, and operating profit was 204.7 billion won, up 100%, marking a significant improvement in results.
This is interpreted as the result of increased volume due to expanded capital expenditure (CAPEX) by big tech AI and the trend toward larger sizes and higher layer counts in printed circuit boards (PCB).
Park Sang-hyun, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities Co., said, "Given the repeatedly raised growth guidance for big tech's AI capital expenditure and the increasing trend in token throughput due to the activation of agent AI, solid demand for multilayered boards (MLB) will continue this year."
Concerns about a slowdown in growth were also eased by the MLB capacity expansion plan released on the 25th.
Under the previous expansion plan, monthly MLB production capacity was to be expanded to 3,000 in the first half of this year and 6,000 in the second half, with no additional expansion planned until the first half of 2028. However, under the new expansion plan, capacity will be increased to 8,000 in the second half of 2026, with an additional 10,500 confirmed for the first half of 2027.
Park noted, "What is noteworthy is that this investment is based on the assumption that only 2,000 pyeong out of the 100,000-pyeong site for the new Daegu plant will be used," adding, "If demand exceeds expectations, further expansion using the remaining 8,000 pyeong of idle land is theoretically possible."