LS Electric rose more than 8% in early trading on the 27th, showing strength. With strong first-quarter results on surging power equipment demand, buying is seen as flowing in on securities firms' assessments that there is room for further gains.
As of 9:57 a.m. that day on the Korea Exchange, LS Electric was trading at 246,500 won, up 20,000 won (8.83%) from the previous session. It climbed to as high as 256,500 won early in the session, setting a 1-year high.
LS Electric posted consolidated first-quarter revenue of 1.3766 trillion won and operating profit of 126.6 billion won. The figures rose 33% and 45%, respectively, from a year earlier, with both revenue and operating profit marking all-time first-quarter highs. The gains came as orders for power infrastructure continued on expanded artificial intelligence (AI) data center investment by global big tech corporations.
NH Investment & Securities raised its target price for LS Electric to 275,000 won from 220,000 won.
Lee Min-jae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said, "Through contracts with big tech that began last year, order value is expected to increase from this year along with an expansion of customers and products," adding, "Orders disclosed in the first quarter show an expansion in the customer base, and product diversification is also appearing from alternating current (AC) power equipment to direct current (DC) power equipment."
NH Investment & Securities cited semiconductor transformers (SST) and semiconductor circuit breakers (SSCB) as examples of essential power equipment used when data centers shift to 800-volt (V) DC as rack-level power density increases. It added that, because LS Electric has been developing these products for a long time, cooperation with several big tech firms is likely to expand.