LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's leading home appliance and smartphone maker, said Wednesday its net profit more than doubled in 2014 from a year earlier on upbeat sales of its TV sets and flagship smartphone G series.  

Net income reached 501.3 billion won ($462 million) in the January-December period, compared with 222.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. 

The figure falls far short of a median estimate of 914 billion won polled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, but marks a significant turnaround for the tech firm. The company had logged 432.8 billion won in net loss for 2011 before swinging to a net gain in the following year. It has seen its net profit rise by more than twofold in 2013 and last year. 

The company added that it will pay a dividend of 400 won per share for 2014. It paid shareholders a dividend of 200 won per share in the previous year. 

Operating profit came to 1.82 trillion won for all of last year, up 46.4 percent from the previous year, with revenue rising 4 percent to 59 trillion won over the cited period.

 The earnings disclosure came early in compliance to a local rule that requires a large firm to report changes in its results by 15 percent or over. The company will release its full earnings details on Thursday. 

 Shares of LG Electronics ended down 1.24 percent to 63,500 won on the main bourse on Wednesday, as opposed to a 0.47 drop on the broader KOSPI. The results were released after the closing bell. (Yonhap)