Incident: The company released its 2023 performance report. The company achieved annual revenue of 582 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.35%; net profit to mother was 39.3 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 41.69%.
Orders have increased significantly, and R&D expenses have increased significantly. The company's order growth rate in 2023 was significant, but due to factors such as the long acceptance cycle of new products and the macro environment, the company's revenue growth slowed during the reporting period, while R&D expenses increased significantly year-on-year, which affected profits. Furthermore, due to changes in the revenue structure of the company's precision laser processing equipment, gross margin decreased compared to the same period last year. As the company's overall gross margin level was higher than the industry average, the decline in gross margin was within a manageable range.
It is expected that the company has sufficient orders in hand to support the recovery of the company's performance. As of the end of the first three quarters of 2023, the company's contract debt was 169 million yuan, and the end of 2022 was 80.21 million yuan. The company's contract debt grew rapidly, which confirmed that the company had sufficient orders in hand, providing strong support for the recovery of the company's performance. According to the company's investor relations activity record table of February 2, 2024, benefiting from the company's continued high R&D investment and new product layout, the company currently has sufficient orders in hand, which is a significant increase over the same period last year.
The multi-line layout is booming, and new products are progressing steadily. ① New electronics: The company's new electronic laser processing equipment has moved towards automotive electronics applications and has received orders for new product lines from mainstream car manufacturers and leading automotive supply chain manufacturers. Cooperation has further increased, and steady growth has been maintained. ② SiC: Silicon carbide ingot laser slicing equipment has received batch orders from leading customers. The product has been mass-produced in customer production lines, and is currently in the market development stage for key customers. ③ Perovskite: Beginning in the second half of 2022, the company began developing next-generation production equipment for perovskite thin-film solar cells, and iteratively upgraded the equipment's lasers, optical systems, processing format and production efficiency. In 2023, the company received some orders for GW grade production lines from major customers and some new customer orders.
④ MicroLED: MicroLED laser mass transfer equipment received the first customer order in 2022, and the new customer order successfully landed in 2023.
Profit forecast: Considering the company's 2023 performance, we adjusted the company's 2023-2025 net profit forecast to 0.39/0.75/108 million yuan, maintaining the “buy” rating.
Risk warning: Iterative photovoltaic technology falls short of expectations, new technology research and development falls short of expectations, and market competition increases risks.