[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh-seok] iM Securities announced on the 15th that it is maintaining its "Buy" rating and target price of 17,000 won for #LG Display.

Jeong Won-seok, an analyst at iM Securities, stated, "Second-quarter earnings are expected to fall short of market expectations (revenue of 5.7 trillion won, operating loss of 80 billion won), with revenue of 5.9 trillion won (+5% year-on-year) and an operating loss of 122 billion won (continuing losses)." He explained, "This is because large-scale one-time costs related to the recent voluntary retirement program are expected to be reflected."
He noted, “While these costs were initially estimated at around 100 to 150 billion won, it is now understood that the actual costs are likely to exceed this figure. Consequently, despite the positive impact of a rising exchange rate, the second-quarter loss is expected to be larger than previously forecast," he noted. "However, we estimate that underlying operating profit, excluding one-time costs, will post a surplus of approximately 128 billion won, driven by improved profitability centered on large-sized OLEDs. Therefore, the weak second-quarter performance is judged to be a temporary profit hit due to one-time factors rather than a structural deterioration in profitability."
Researcher Jeong explained, “In the second half of the year, earnings are expected to show a clear improvement as we enter the seasonal peak period. Although concerns about a slowdown in demand have been raised due to the possibility of smartphone price hikes following the recent surge in memory chip prices, it is understood that Apple, a key client, is leveraging production disruptions among Chinese smartphone manufacturers to expand its market share.”
He added, “Consequently, shipments of OLED panels for the new iPhone 18 models are expected to remain robust in the second half of the year. In particular, as Samsung Display—another panel supplier to Apple—is expected to be the exclusive supplier of OLED panels for Apple’s new foldable iPhone models, the shift in production capacity allocation to accommodate foldable panels (resulting in increased panel area) will serve as a factor driving an expansion of market share for the existing bar-type iPhone 18 OLED panels.”
Consequently, LG Display’s OLED panel shipments for the new iPhone 18 models are projected to increase by approximately 5–10% year-over-year. “Reflecting this, we estimate that the company’s 2026 annual performance will record revenue of 25.6 trillion won (-1%) and operating profit of 1.2 trillion won (+140%). "Following the reflection of one-time costs in the second quarter, the trend of annual earnings recovery is expected to continue as the peak season effect for mobile OLEDs in the second half of the year aligns with improved profitability in large-sized OLEDs," he said.
Analyst Jung noted, “We believe that expectations for earnings recovery are already largely reflected in the current stock price, and we judge that the relative upside potential within the IT sector is somewhat limited. The possibility of earnings improvement in the second half of the year and the resulting improvement in the financial structure remains valid.” However, he advised, “Since the valuation level is close to the average peak level seen during past profitable periods, it is advisable to adopt a ‘buy on dips’ approach rather than aggressively increasing holdings.”