Korea Investment & Securities Co. said on the 14th that LIG Nex1 is expected to benefit from faster delivery of existing contract volumes and expectations for additional orders from the Middle East. The firm maintained its Buy rating and raised its target price to 1.2 million won from 700,000 won. LIG Nex1's previous session closing price was 939,000 won.
Jang Nam-hyeon, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities Co., said, "As the importance of air-defense missiles has come to the fore during the Iran war, both the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia requested early delivery of existing contract volumes," and added, "After confirming whether production capacity (CAPA) to accelerate deliveries is secured, an upward revision to estimates will be possible."
In addition, the signing of additional export contracts is expected. Specifically, considering Saudi Arabia's replacement needs, the introduction of more than six batteries of Cheongung-II is projected to proceed. The resulting contract size is expected to exceed 2.5 trillion won. In particular, with the high level of interest from the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the long-range surface-to-air guided weapon L-SAM, it analyzed that the export momentum for air-defense missiles will continue in the mid to long term.
This year, LIG Nex1's first-quarter revenue is projected at 1.1664 trillion won and operating profit at 124.4 billion won. Compared with a year earlier, revenue would rise 28.5% and operating profit 9.5%. Operating profit is estimated to beat the market consensus of 113.5 billion won by 9.6%. As deliveries of Cheongung-II to the UAE increase, the pace of recognizing revenue progress is expected to accelerate, with first-quarter overseas revenue projected to reach 333.4 billion won, up 80.2% from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, as the 26.2 trillion won order backlog is recognized as revenue, LIG Nex1's average annual earnings per share (EPS) growth rate for 2025–2028 is analyzed to be 44.2%, 19.1% higher than the peer average.
Jang added, "It is already the fastest-growing company among global peers," and "considering the potential for additional orders from the Middle East and an increase in the speed of delivering existing volumes, future growth will expand further."