BH, a corporations specializing in flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB), rose more than 15% in early trading on the 16th. As the securities industry projected strong first-quarter results on expectations of benefits from increased production of North American smartphones, buying is seen as flocking to the stock.
As of 9:45 a.m. on the day, BH was trading at 27,550 won on the Korea Exchange, up 3,600 won (15.03%) from the previous session.
SK Securities projected that BH will post 118 billion won in operating profit this year, up 77% from a year earlier. It also expected first-quarter operating profit to reach 8 billion won, increasing by more than 30 billion won from the same period a year earlier. It raised its target price by 119.5% to 45,000 won from 20,500 won.
Park Hyung-woo, an analyst at SK Securities, said, "A North American manufacturer is considering additional smartphone production increases of more than 5% in 2027 following 2026," and added, "Korea's value chain still has insufficient preparations to expand absolute production capacity for 2027, so parts supply will become even tighter."
DS Investment & Securities forecast that BH will slightly beat market expectations in the first quarter this year, with sales of 380.1 billion won and operating profit of 6.4 billion won, compared with the consensus of 371.2 billion won in sales and 6.3 billion won in operating profit.
Cho Dae-hyung, an analyst at DS Investment & Securities, said, "Thanks to long-tail demand for the iPhone 17 series, we expect a solid earnings trend in the second quarter following the relatively off-season first quarter," and added, "Cost reductions (CR) for mobile products also appear limited, so profitability is expected to remain stable compared with concerns."