[Featured Stock] SL Jumps Over 10% on Rising Operating Profit and Dividend Appeal

The share price of SL, whose earnings and dividend appeal are both coming into focus, is strong on the 20th.

As of 10:36 a.m. on this day, SL was trading at 61,000 won, up 5,900 won (10.71%) from the previous trading day.

Samsung Securities maintained its "Buy" investment opinion on SL and its target price of 87,000 won, calling it "a robotics stock that also pays high dividends."

In the fourth quarter of last year, the company posted sales of 1.4 trillion won and operating profit of 113.5 billion won. These figures were up 13.9% and 178%, respectively, from the same period a year earlier. Lim Eunyoung, an analyst at Samsung Securities, explained, "In addition to compensation of about 50 billion won for U.S. tariff costs, lamp sales increased thanks to higher sales of Hyundai Motor's Palisade and Kia's EV4 and PV5."

The dividend payout ratio was also sharply raised from 15% in 2024 to 40% last year. Analyst Lim noted, "It meets the first requirement for separate taxation of dividend income, which is a dividend payout ratio of 40% or more," adding, "With a dividend yield of 5%, it is the highest level in the industry. Considering its net cash financial structure and earnings growth, there is a high possibility that the 40% payout ratio will be maintained through next year."

Lim added, "Since late 2020, when Hyundai Motor Group acquired Boston Dynamics (BD), the company has established a robotics division and has been developing robot components," and said, "It has secured new growth engines in the form of robot components and body modules."