The Zhitong Finance App learned that CICC released a research report stating that it maintained the Weibo-SW (09898) “outperforming the industry” rating and lowered its 2024/2025 non-GAAP net profit forecast of 17.4%/17.0% to US$408/497 million due to slow progress in brand advertising repairs. Taking into account the lower profit forecast and shareholder return value, the target price for Hong Kong stocks was lowered by 11% to HK$101. The company's 4Q23 non-GAAP operating profit basically met market expectations

According to the report, the company announced a dividend of 0.82 US dollars/ADS, with a total dividend of about 200 million US dollars. The bank expects subsequent dividends or gradual normalization. Looking ahead to the full year of 2024, the bank believes that in terms of online brand advertising, in addition to the external environment, other potential impacts include: 1) large-scale sporting events, such as the Olympics, driving the brand advertising budget, especially for advertisers such as food and drink, sports shoes, clothing, etc.; 2) supporting marketing budgets for new product launches by manufacturers, such as games and new energy manufacturers' new model reserves. CICC expects that under the fixed exchange rate, Weibo advertising revenue may drop by about 1% year on year in the first quarter, and advertising revenue may increase by low year year over year.