Incident: The company announced its 2024 quarterly report. In the first quarter of 2024, the company achieved operating income of 1,841 million yuan, an increase of 58.69% over the previous year, and achieved net profit of 399 million yuan, an increase of 95.23% over the previous year.
Competitive advantages at home and abroad increased, and the company's revenue continued to grow rapidly in the first quarter. In the first quarter of 2024, the company achieved revenue of 1,841 billion yuan, an increase of about 59% over the previous year. The company further expanded its domestic and foreign market advantages through deep channel cultivation and reasonable product layout, and achieved rapid revenue growth. By market: ① In terms of domestic sales, the company's domestic sales revenue is expected to grow steadily in the first quarter, mainly due to the rapid release of new sweepers with a complete price band layout and outstanding product strength for the company's domestic sales products. According to statistics from Aowei Cloud Network, online sales of stone sweeping robots (excluding Douyin) increased by about 30% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024. During the same period, the sales share of the new model P10 PRO (including water, sewage and non-sewage) reached 8.80%, ranking second in the industry. ② In terms of export sales, the company's export sales revenue in the first quarter is expected to maintain a relatively high growth rate despite the launch of new overseas products and a low base for the same period last year.
Product structure has been optimized, scale effects have been released, and the company's profitability continues to improve. The company's gross margin for the first quarter of 2024 was 56.49%, an increase of about 6.6pct over the previous year. It is estimated that the proportion of the company's high-margin new products and high-margin direct sales channels has increased. The company's expense ratio for the same period was 33.34%, down 1.5 pct year on year. Among them, sales/management/R&D/finance expense ratios were -0.2/-1.7/-0.8/+1.1 pct year on year, respectively. The decline in the cost ratio was mainly due to the company's faster revenue growth and scale-effect dilution of expenses. The company's net interest rate to mother in the first quarter of 2024 was 21.66%, an increase of about 4.1 pct over the previous year, and profitability continued to increase.
New flagship products of V20 and G20S were launched centrally, and Stone's high-end brand image is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. At the end of March 2024, the company officially released two flagship products, V20 and G20S. The first sales price of the water tank version was 4,799 yuan and 5,399 yuan respectively. The V20 eliminated the LDS single-point lidar and was equipped with a dual-light solid-state lidar for the first time, effectively reducing the thickness of the fuselage to 8.2 cm, thereby enhancing the adaptability of the sweeper to diverse home environments. At the same time, the V20 also has FlexiArm Design dual robotic arms to improve the machine's ability to clean edges and corners. The G20S is the company's most fully functional flagship high-end product. The floor cleaning function was upgraded to four-zone double shock floor wiping, and the base station height of the automatic water discharge version was reduced to 30 cm. The launch of the two high-end flagship products is expected to further strengthen the high-end brand image and drive the company's domestic sales growth.
Maintaining the company's profit forecast, it is predicted that the company's net profit for 2024-2026 will be 23.72/27.13/3.083 billion yuan, respectively, maintaining the company's DCF target valuation of 404.41 yuan, and maintaining the “buy” rating.
Risk warning
New product sales fell short of expectations; industry competition intensified; consumer demand recovery fell short of expectations.