Connecting context: June’s six-stock check argued that a live catalyst and a cheap stock are not the same claim. This piece applies that same test across sectors to fourteen stocks, and yesterday’s biotech map closed on the same question: how much of being a good position is already priced in.
TL;DR
- This table is a list of good companies, not a list of cheap stocks. Comparing each stock’s conservative value range with the August 21 close, seven of the fourteen have a midpoint above the current price, and five have a current price above even the top of the range. [Fact: closing prices from the exchange, value ranges are in-house estimates]
- The character of the reference date needs to be established first. On August 21 the KOSPI closed at 6,912.95, up 0.88%, but 193 stocks rose against 683 that fell, and the index gain came from just two stocks, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The KOSDAQ closed at 801.94, down 4.63%, and a futures plunge triggered a sell-side sidecar. [Fact: exchange data, press reports] Of the fourteen stocks in this table, only NAVER rose that day.
- It is not just a one-day issue. All fourteen stocks sit 22% to 64% below their 52-week highs. Measured from the start of the year, Samsung Electro-Mechanics is up 387%, Daeduck Electronics is up 118%, and LG Electronics is up 113%. The fact that a verdict of “still expensive” shows up after a big run-up and then a big pullback says something about what this table is. [Fact: calculated in-house from exchange prices]
- Earnings were mostly confirmed. Samsung E&A’s Q2 revenue grew 19.8% and operating profit grew 51.0%, and it filled 3 trillion won in new orders. Daeduck Electronics grew revenue 63.1%, with operating profit reaching 70.2 billion won, thirty-seven times the year-earlier figure. NAVER’s revenue grew 16.2% but operating profit fell 0.2%, and LG CNS’s operating profit fell 9.2%. [Fact: company disclosures]
- The names with the most headroom and the names with the best earnings do not rank the same way. NAVER has the most room in its value range, 22.3% to the midpoint, while Daeduck Electronics, which had the best Q2 earnings, has only 7.4% of room. The ranking by growth and the ranking by margin of safety come out different even within the same table.
- Samsung Electro-Mechanics is a case where earnings and price need to be looked at separately. Q2 revenue grew 24% and operating profit grew 107%, and it confirmed long-term MLCC supply contracts and mass production of substrates for AI accelerators. Even so, its price of 1,316,000 won is 23% above the top of this table’s value range. [Fact: company disclosure, exchange data]
- The table’s internal consistency checks out. The price-to-book multiple is, in theory, the product of return on equity and the price-to-earnings multiple, and for all fourteen stocks that product falls between 0.81x and 0.99x of the table’s own price-to-book multiple. The gap comes from the one-year difference in the reference years, and it runs in one consistent direction.
- The remaining limitation comes down to one thing: the thickness of the estimates differs from stock to stock. LG Innotek has 20 contributing brokers while OCI has 3, and Hyundai AutoEver’s 2027 multiple ranges from 38x to 50x depending on when it is quoted. [Fact: comparison of company-analysis screens and brokerage data] The table also needs a correction to OCI’s identity. The Malaysian plant and the US solar tariffs belong to a separately listed company with the same name.
Finding good companies and finding cheap stocks are not the same task. This table does the first job well. It includes companies with improving return on equity, companies building order backlogs, and companies tied to AI demand, and the earnings confirm it. But once you set each stock’s value range against its current price, about half of them have already paid for that fact. Five of the fourteen have a current price above even the top of the range. What the table tells you is not what to buy but where room still remains, and that room lines up in a different order than the earnings do.
1. The Reference Date: The Index Rose While 683 Stocks Fell
The prices in the table are the closing prices from August 21, 2026. The character of that day comes first.
The KOSPI closed at 6,912.95, up 60.37 points, or 0.88%. It had fallen as much as 1.35% intraday before buying in large-cap semiconductor names turned it around. Looking at the index alone, it was a good day. But 193 stocks rose and 683 fell, and the entire index gain came from two stocks: Samsung Electronics, up 3.87%, and SK Hynix, up 2.31%. The KOSDAQ closed at 801.94 that same day, down 4.63%, and KOSDAQ 150 futures plunged 6.06%, triggering a sell-side sidecar in the morning session. [Fact: exchange data, press reports]
The flow pattern was retail selling into institutional buying. On the KOSPI, institutions were net buyers of about 248.5 billion won, while foreign investors were net sellers of about 175.7 billion won and retail investors were net sellers of about 1.17 trillion won. [Fact: press compilation]
It was not a day when the fundamentals broke down. Exports rose 56.0% year over year from August 1 to 20, and semiconductor exports rose 198.8%, the strongest such period on record. [Fact: press reports] That day’s decline looks less like company-specific bad news and more like a rotation: profit-taking in AI names that had run up sharply, moving into large index-weight stocks.
Of the fourteen stocks in this table, only NAVER rose that day. The other thirteen fell: Daeduck Electronics down 8.0%, LG Innotek down 6.3%, LS Electric down 6.1%, and Samsung E&A down 6.0%.
This does not end with a single day.
View as table
| Stock | Below 52-week high | Year to date |
|---|---|---|
| NAVER | -22.6% | -10% |
| Samsung E&A | -29.9% | +94% |
| Isu Petasys | -38.5% | -18% |
| CS Wind | -39.5% | +15% |
| Hyosung Heavy | -40.9% | +48% |
| LS Electric | -41.3% | +90% |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics | -42.0% | +387% |
| Daeduck Electronics | -45.4% | +118% |
| OCI | -46.6% | +36% |
| Hanmi Semiconductor | -47.9% | +48% |
| LG CNS | -50.2% | +14% |
| LG Electronics | -50.4% | +113% |
| Hyundai AutoEver | -52.2% | +35% |
| LG Innotek | -64.1% | +106% |
All fourteen stocks sit below their 52-week highs. NAVER has the shallowest gap, 22.6% below, and LG Innotek has the deepest, 64.1% below. Yet measured from the start of the year, most are up sharply: Samsung Electro-Mechanics up 387%, Daeduck Electronics up 118%, LG Electronics up 113%, and LG Innotek up 106%. [Fact: calculated in-house from exchange prices] This means judging today’s price from a spot that ran up hard in the first half of the year and then got pushed down hard over the summer. If a stock is still called expensive after falling more than 40% from its high, that verdict is resting on the earnings outlook, not on the size of the decline.
2. What the Table Actually Says: The Gap Between Value Range and Current Price
The full table comes first. Prices are the August 21, 2026 close, and the 2027 and 2028 estimates are consensus figures compiled as of the publication date. Public company-analysis screens on domestic portals show estimates only through 2026, so the later years should be read as an in-house aggregation of brokerage data. The conservative value range is an in-house estimate that weights 2027 expected earnings per share at 60% and 2028 at 40%, applying a normalized multiple for each sector.
| Stock | Aug 21 Close | 27E ROE | 27E/28E P/E | 26E P/B | Conservative Value Range | Vs. Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung E&A | 45,150 won | 16.0% | 9.6x/8.7x | 1.66x | 44,000-59,000 won | +14.1% |
| Daeduck Electronics | 104,300 won | 26.3% | 16.3x/13.1x | 4.89x | 98,000-126,000 won | +7.4% |
| NAVER | 222,000 won | 7.3% | 15.6x/13.5x | 1.15x | 241,000-302,000 won | +22.3% |
| LG CNS | 71,600 won | 15.5% | 13.1x/11.8x | 2.14x | 74,000-91,000 won | +15.2% |
| Isu Petasys | 99,300 won | 33.4% | 18.0x/14.4x | 7.20x | 97,000-121,000 won | +9.8% |
| Hyosung Heavy Industries | 2,721,000 won | 31.9% | 22.3x/16.3x | 8.30x | 2,520,000-3,080,000 won | +2.9% |
| LG Innotek | 550,000 won | 15.4% | 11.6x/9.7x | 1.93x | 460,000-610,000 won | -2.7% |
| OCI | 80,100 won | 10.2% | 5.5x/5.1x | 0.57x | 76,000-106,000 won | +13.6% |
| CS Wind | 46,550 won | 15.8% | 9.0x/11.5x | 1.50x | 38,000-47,000 won | -8.7% |
| LG Electronics | 194,500 won | 9.4% | 13.3x/10.3x | 1.31x | 147,000-180,000 won | -15.9% |
| Hanmi Semiconductor | 213,500 won | 44.3% | 39.7x/31.7x | 21.66x | 148,000-189,000 won | -21.1% |
| LS Electric | 187,000 won | 27.9% | 36.1x/27.9x | 11.24x | 127,000-162,000 won | -22.7% |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics | 1,316,000 won | 23.3% | 35.1x/22.3x | 9.01x | 830,000-1,010,000 won | -30.1% |
| Hyundai AutoEver | 448,000 won | 12.6% | 46.2x/36.9x | 6.12x | 256,000-320,000 won | -35.7% |
[Fact: closing prices from the exchange. Estimates are consensus as of publication plus in-house calculations, and vary by brokerage and timing]
View as table
| Stock | To midpoint | To top of range |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung E&A | +14.1% | +30.7% |
| NAVER | +22.3% | +36.0% |
| LG CNS | +15.2% | +27.1% |
| OCI | +13.6% | +32.3% |
| Isu Petasys | +9.8% | +21.9% |
| Daeduck Electronics | +7.4% | +20.8% |
| Hyosung Heavy | +2.9% | +13.2% |
| LG Innotek | -2.7% | +10.9% |
| CS Wind | -8.7% | +1.0% |
| LG Electronics | -15.9% | -7.5% |
| Hanmi Semiconductor | -21.1% | -11.5% |
| LS Electric | -22.7% | -13.4% |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics | -30.1% | -23.3% |
| Hyundai AutoEver | -35.7% | -28.6% |
Sorting the same table by the size of the headroom shows three clusters.
Seven names still have room: NAVER at 22.3% to the midpoint, LG CNS at 15.2%, Samsung E&A at 14.1%, OCI at 13.6%, Isu Petasys at 9.8%, Daeduck Electronics at 7.4%, and Hyosung Heavy Industries at 2.9%. Two sit on the border. LG Innotek’s midpoint is 2.7% below the current price, but its top is 10.9% above. CS Wind’s midpoint is 8.7% below, with its top 1.0% above. Five stocks have a current price above even the top of the range. LG Electronics’ top is 7.5% below the current price, Hanmi Semiconductor’s is 11.5% below, LS Electric’s is 13.4% below, Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ is 23.3% below, and Hyundai AutoEver’s is 28.6% below.
The last five are already expensive by the table’s own standard. This is not a verdict pulled in from some outside benchmark; it is a number generated from the same table, the same assumptions, and the same date.
One name needs correcting before moving on. The OCI in this table is ticker 456040, and the company directly exposed to the Malaysian polysilicon plant and US solar tariffs is OCI Holdings (010060), which shares the same name. The two are separately listed companies, and their Q2 operating profits differ too: 43.3 billion won versus 108.1 billion won. [Fact: press reports, disclosures] OCI (456040) posted Q2 revenue of 535.0 billion won and operating profit of 43.3 billion won, swinging back to a profit, with its business split between basic chemicals and carbon chemicals. The results were driven by rising utilization at its semiconductor-grade polysilicon and hydrogen peroxide lines as the chip cycle recovered. Treating solar policy as a risk for this stock ends up importing another company’s story.
It is also worth noting where the rankings diverge. Daeduck Electronics, which had the best Q2 earnings, has 7.4% of room, sixth from the bottom. NAVER, whose 7.3% return on equity is the lowest in this table, has the most room, at 22.3%. The ranking by growth and the ranking by margin of safety run in opposite directions within the same table. The table does not tell you which one to prioritize.
3. The Earnings Case for the Stocks With Room
Having more room is not the same claim as having better earnings, so this section checks the Q2 results for four of these stocks.
View as table
| Stock | Q2 revenue | Growth | Operating profit | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung E&A | 2.61tn won | +19.8% | 273.1bn won | +51.0% |
| Daeduck Electronics | 401.0bn won | +63.1% | 70.3bn won | +3,666% |
| NAVER | 3.39tn won | +16.2% | 520.3bn won | -0.2% |
| LG CNS | 1.52tn won | +4.2% | 127.9bn won | -9.2% |
Samsung E&A’s Q2 revenue was 2.61 trillion won, up 19.8%, and operating profit was 273.1 billion won, up 51.0%. New orders in the quarter came to 3 trillion won, and the first-half total reached 7.6 trillion won, filling 63.3% of the full-year order target of 12 trillion won in just six months. The order backlog stands at 22.7 trillion won, roughly 2.5 years of work. [Fact: company disclosure]
At 45,150 won, the stock trades at 9.6x projected 2027 earnings. Confirmed earnings growth combined with a single-digit multiple is what defines this stock’s position. That said, the volatility inherent in an order-driven business remains. A $790 million Middle East water treatment contract was confirmed in May, but some of the large projects the press has floated are still unconfirmed pipeline. [Fact: company disclosure, press reports]
Daeduck Electronics’ Q2 is the sharpest improvement in this table. Revenue was 401.0 billion won, up 63.1%, and operating profit was 70.3 billion won, thirty-seven times the year-earlier 1.9 billion won. First-half cumulative revenue was 747.3 billion won and operating profit was 121.6 billion won. [Fact: company disclosure] Even adjusting for the base effect, this reads as both utilization and pricing rising together in AI server substrates. That said, this stock has an item that could not be confirmed. The 2027 and 2028 earnings-per-share growth rates cited in an earlier draft could not be traced to a public source, and the company does not disclose its revenue mix by business segment. [Blocked: source unverified]
NAVER’s Q2 revenue was 3.39 trillion won, up 16.2%, while operating profit was 520.3 billion won, down 0.2%. The company pointed to AI infrastructure investment as the reason. Naver Platform revenue was 1.90 trillion won, up 12.3%, with advertising up 7.5% and commerce up 31.3% within that. [Fact: company disclosure] The reason this stock shows the most room even with flat profit is simple. Its 7.3% return on equity is the lowest in this table, but its price-to-book multiple, at 1.15x, is also the lowest. If the timing of investment converting into revenue gets confirmed, the multiple is the piece most likely to move first.
LG CNS’ Q2 revenue was 1.52 trillion won, up 4.2%, but operating profit was 127.9 billion won, down 9.2%, and the operating margin fell 1.2 percentage points to 8.4%. Revenue from the cloud and AI segment was 906.0 billion won, up 3.9%, accounting for 58.9% of the total. Net cash was 1.45 trillion won, up 26.6% from a year earlier but down 12.5% from the previous quarter. [Fact: company disclosure] It is fair to say this business is growing, but that growth is running at 3.9%, and margins have not recovered yet; both points need to be read together.
4. Where the Room Is Gone: Good Earnings, Price Already Ahead
Samsung Electro-Mechanics is the stock with the biggest improvement in earnings quality. Q2 revenue grew 24% and operating profit grew 107%. It signed long-term MLCC supply agreements with roughly ten customers, and mass production was confirmed for flip-chip substrates used in AI accelerators and server CPUs. [Fact: company disclosure, press reports] The business case has gotten stronger.
The price tells a different story. At 1,316,000 won, the stock trades at 35.1x projected 2027 earnings and 22.3x 2028 earnings. That multiple only holds up if 2028 earnings grow as currently forecast, and the price is already 23.3% above the top of this table’s value range, even though it sits 42% below its 52-week high. A stronger business case and a margin of safety at the current price are two different questions. This is not a call to sell; it is a call that there is no room left for new money.
Hanmi Semiconductor’s Q2 revenue grew 39.5% and operating profit grew 51%, both quarterly records. [Fact: company disclosure] Its 44.3% return on equity is the highest in this table, and its 21.66x price-to-book multiple is also the highest. A newly confirmed variable sits alongside that. A competitor has actually won an order for thermal compression bonders for SK Hynix’s high-bandwidth memory, and the two companies are in patent litigation. [Fact: press reports] If the multiple assumes a near-monopoly position, this variable strikes directly at the basis for that multiple.
LS Electric’s Q2 revenue grew 32% and operating profit grew 64%. The case built on North American power equipment demand still holds. But the 36.1x multiple on projected 2027 earnings, and 27.9x on 2028, only holds up if the capacity expansion and order intake through 2028 convert into profit as planned. Note that this stock carried out a 5-for-1 stock split in April, so comparing per-share figures directly against anything before that date will not line up. [Fact: company disclosure]
Hyundai AutoEver has the least room in this table. Q2 revenue grew 20.0%, but operating profit growth came to only 11.3%, and automotive software revenue fell 7.8% on tariff effects. Captive, intra-group revenue accounted for 96.2% of the total in 2025. [Fact: company disclosure, filings] The stock ran up sharply this year on the robotics and physical AI theme, then fell back to roughly half its high. Even so, the multiple remains elevated. Depending on the source cited, the 2027 multiple ranges from 38x to 50x, and whichever figure is used, it sits among the highest in this table.
5. The Table’s Internal Check and the Limits of the Method
Before taking the numbers at face value, this table was checked for internal contradictions. The price-to-book multiple is, in theory, the product of return on equity and the price-to-earnings multiple. Multiplying the table’s 2027 return on equity by its 2027 price-to-earnings multiple and comparing the result with the table’s 2026 price-to-book multiple, all fourteen stocks fall between 0.81x and 0.99x, with a median of 0.93x. [Fact: in-house check against the table]
The direction is consistent too. The multiplied figure always comes out a little smaller, which follows from the fact that the equity in the denominator is a 2026 figure while earnings are a 2027 figure, so the gap reflects a year’s worth of retained earnings. The fact that the gap widens as return on equity rises also matches the theory. The table is internally consistent.
The limitations are a separate matter.
The 2028 estimates are the weakest link. Even the number of contributing brokers varies widely by stock. On public company-analysis screens, LG Innotek has 20 contributing brokers and LG Electronics has 17, while OCI has only 3. [Fact: confirmed on company-analysis screens] Within the same table, one stock’s estimate is an average of twenty sources and another’s is an average of three.
Forty percent of the value range rides on the 2028 estimate. That makes a low 2028 multiple, by itself, weak grounds for a judgment. CS Wind illustrates the problem. Its 2027 multiple is a low 9.0x, but its 2028 multiple actually rises to 11.5x. That reflects a forecast that 2028 earnings will decline. The basis is a projection that US wind installations will fall from 13.4 gigawatts in 2027 to 8.1 gigawatts in 2028, and brokerages are not unanimous on that point. [Fact: company data, brokerage reports] For reference, this company’s Q2 revenue was 686.4 billion won and operating profit was 86.0 billion won, up 45%, of which 30.9 billion won came from the US production tax credit.
The assumed normalized multiple also drives the outcome. The value range comes from multiplying by whatever multiple is judged normal for that sector. For Samsung E&A, using 10x versus 12x shifts the top of the range by 20%. This piece leans toward the conservative end, and a different assumption produces a different table.
There is also dispersion within the consensus itself. Hyundai AutoEver’s 2027 multiple was 38.3x in late-July brokerage data, and recalculating it against the August 21 close puts it near 50x. The table’s 46.2x sits between the two. Which value is cited, and from when and which broker, changes the conclusion. Isu Petasys’ 33.4% return on equity also runs a bit above the highest confirmed brokerage estimate. [Fact: comparison of brokerage data]
6. What to Watch
What this table produces is not a trading instruction but a checklist. For the names with room, watch whether earnings fill that room. For the names without room, watch whether the price comes down or earnings catch up.
| Stock | Basis for the Room | What to Watch Next |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung E&A | 9.6x multiple despite 51% profit growth | Whether second-half new orders clear the 12 trillion won full-year target, and how fast the 22.7 trillion won backlog converts to revenue |
| NAVER | Lowest P/E and lowest P/B in the table | When AI investment starts converting into advertising and commerce revenue, and a rebound in operating profit growth |
| LG CNS | 1.45 trillion won in net cash and a 13.1x multiple | Whether the operating margin recovers from 8.4%, and whether cloud and AI revenue growth rises above 3.9% |
| Daeduck Electronics | Revenue up 63.1%, operating profit up thirty-sevenfold | Whether pricing and utilization hold up in Q3, and whether the basis for the 2027 estimate becomes public |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics | Best earnings, but 23% above the top of the range | Whether 2028 profit forecasts keep getting revised up, and whether the long-term supply contracts convert into actual volume |
| Hanmi Semiconductor | Highest profitability, highest multiple | The impact of the competitor’s thermal compression bonder order on market share, and how the patent litigation proceeds |
| Hyundai AutoEver | Least room, 96.2% captive revenue | Recovery in tariff-affected automotive software revenue, and any change in the share of revenue from outside the group |
If a portfolio already carries a heavy weighting in AI semiconductors, there is one more thing to consider. Of the fourteen stocks in this table, Daeduck Electronics, Isu Petasys, Hanmi Semiconductor, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics are all tied to the same demand. Adding these names because they still have room can look like adding positions without adding risk, but it actually just increases exposure to the same variable. The size of the room and the benefit of diversification have to be calculated separately.
The stocks named in this piece are examples for analysis and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any specific stock. Responsibility for any investment decision and its outcome rests with the investor. Prices are Korea Exchange closing prices as of August 21, 2026, and the figures for change since the start of the year and distance from the 52-week high were calculated in-house from exchange prices. The 2027 and 2028 estimates are consensus figures as of the publication date and will vary by brokerage and by timing; the conservative value range is an in-house estimate that weights 2027 earnings per share at 60% and 2028 at 40%, applying a normalized multiple by sector. The earnings-per-share growth rates for Daeduck Electronics in 2027 and 2028, and the return-on-equity estimate for Isu Petasys, could not be confirmed at the same value across public sources. Earnings figures follow each company’s own disclosures and may include preliminary figures.
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