[Market Focus] LG Electronics Jumps 22% on Strong Earnings Expectations

LG Electronics is surging on expectations of strong earnings.

As of 2:28 p.m. on the 11th, LG Electronics was trading at 127,100 won, up 22.21% from the previous trading day.

Park Kangho, an analyst at Daishin Securities, released a report on LG Electronics the same day, stating that "attention should be paid to this year's first-quarter earnings and the physical AI business."

Park projected LG Electronics' first-quarter 2026 consolidated operating profit at 1.61 trillion won, a 28% increase year-on-year. This is 17.5% above the market consensus of 1.37 trillion won, representing an earnings surprise.

He analyzed that cost-management strategies in the HS (home appliances) and MS (TV) divisions will drive earnings improvement. In the HS division, the company increased the production share in the United States and Mexico in response to North American tariff policies, and secured profitability through the expansion of premium products equipped with AI functions and subscription-based home appliance services. The MS division, which recorded an operating loss of 750.9 billion won last year, is expected to turn to profit in the first quarter of this year, achieving a turnaround from the previous quarter.

As a future growth engine, he pointed to the strengthening of competitiveness in "physical AI." The competitiveness of its proprietary AI model "EXAONE" is being diversified from household robots to industrial robots, and collaboration with companies in which it has equity stakes, such as Robotis, Robostar, and Bear Robotics, is expected to generate synergies across its home appliance, TV, vehicle component, and HVAC businesses.