For the whole year, net profit declined and gross profit margin increased slightly.
The company released its annual report on March 13, 2018, with operating income reaching 122.53 million yuan, an increase of 0.58% over the same period last year, and net profit belonging to the parent company reaching 40.46 million yuan, down 12.63% from the same period last year. Of this total, the operating income in the fourth quarter was 42.64 million yuan, and the net profit was 14.25 million yuan, up 13.7% and 16.3% respectively over the same period last year. The gross profit margin for the whole year was 49.55%, a slight increase of 0.19 percentage points over last year.
Short-term benefit QR code scanning gun penetration continues to increase
The overall revenue of the company's bar code reading business in 2017 was 118 million yuan, down 3.14% from 2016, mainly due to a large decline in one-dimensional code products.
The company sees the market trend of two-dimensional code instead of one-dimensional code, and increases the research and development and sales of two-dimensional code products. We judge that the company's QR code products accounted for more than 50% in 2017, and the core product miniature QR code scanning module has achieved small batch sales in the fourth quarter of 2017, which is expected to be introduced to the market on a large scale.
The company's R & D expenses accounted for 7% of total revenue in 2017, and we continue to invest in miniature QR code scanning modules, screen bar code scanning platforms, lightweight data collectors, and so on. We judge that the proportion of QR code products will continue to increase in the next 2 years.
Exploratory layout bar code recognizer external service
According to the statistics of VDC, the market space of the global bar code scanner industry is about US $1.85 billion in 2015, while the market space in China is less than 30%. The company ranks second only to the New World in the domestic brand ranking, with a market share of about 3.2%. The company can achieve sustained and steady development in the existing bar code recognition field.
In August 2017, through an increase of 10 million yuan, the company acquired a 10% equity stake in Shenzhen Autonomous Technology Co., Ltd., and began to set foot in the core modules and systems of embedded artificial intelligence-based ADAS and intelligent car preloading requirements in the field of intelligent automotive electronics.
Profit forecast and investment suggestion
It is estimated that the net profit of the company from 2018 to 2020 is 48 million yuan, 61 million yuan and 77 million yuan, corresponding to EPS 0.80,1.01,1.28 yuan, and corresponding PE is 71.1,56.2,44.3times. The company's performance in 2018 is expected to pick up and maintain its "buy" rating.
Risk hint: the company's sales are below expectations or customer expansion is not as expected.