Kiwoom Securities on the 21st said LEENO Industrial's results are set to improve as growth in artificial intelligence (AI) inference and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) markets leads to higher demand for integrated circuit (IC) test sockets and pushes up selling prices. It maintained its recommendation at "buy" (BUY) and raised the target price 50% to 120,000 won from 80,000 won. The previous day's closing price was 96,700 won.
Kiwoom Securities said LEENO Industrial's first-quarter results this year beat its outlook on big-tech corporations' moves to in-house AI Semiconductor production, higher specifications in smartphone products, and rising demand for medical device components.
Kiwoom Securities estimated LEENO Industrial will post second-quarter revenue of 133.4 billion won and operating profit of 64.8 billion won this year. Revenue and operating profit are projected to grow 19% and 21%, respectively, from a year earlier. The reason is strong performance in new high–value-added businesses such as AI inference ASICs and HBM.
Park Yuak, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Strength in the AI inference market and AI server demand also contributed positively to LEENO Industrial's IC test socket performance growth," and noted, "The favorable trend is expected to continue through next year, when big-tech corporations release new AI-focused ASIC chips."
Park added, "There are concerns that the sharp rise in memory prices that began last year will cause a steep drop in smartphone and PC demand," but said, "LEENO Industrial's performance will continue to grow on higher smartphone specifications and expanding demand for ASICs for AI."