2023 and 1Q24 results are in line with our expectations
In 2023, Shengbang Co., Ltd. achieved operating income of 2,616 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.94%; net profit to mother was 281 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 67.86%; gross margin was 49.60%, a year-on-year decrease of 9.38 ppts, mainly due to weak overall industry demand, and the decline in the company's product sales volume and prices of some products. 1Q24's revenue rose 42.03% year on year to 729 million yuan, net profit to mother was 54 million yuan, up 80.04% year on year; gross margin was 52.49%, down 0.18 ppts year on year. Overall performance was in line with our expectations.
Development trends
Gross profit declined year on year in 2023, and 1Q24 performance increased year over year during the off-season. Due to the low overall demand for semiconductors in 2023, the company's power management product revenue fell 12.31% year on year, gross margin fell 9.31 ppts year on year to 46.10% year on year; signal chain product revenue fell 27.07% year on year, and gross margin fell 8.27 ppts year on year to 56.64% year on year. However, due to the gradual recovery of consumption-based downstream and the optimization of the company's product structure, 1Q24's revenue increased 42.03% year over year, gross margin increased 2.89% month-on-month, and net profit to mother increased by 80.04% year over year. We expect that as demand for downstream industrial control and automotive electronics continues to grow in 2024, and demand in the superimposed consumer electronics market gradually picks up, the company's revenue and profit margin are expected to recover further.
Accelerate the launch of new products and continue to lay out booming markets such as industry and automobiles. According to the company's announcement, the company has now independently developed more than 5,200 marketable products, covering 32 product categories. In addition, the company has accelerated progress and launched more than 900 new products with fully independent intellectual property rights in 2023. According to the company announcement, in 2024, the company is expected to continue to promote research and development of core technologies and products such as industrial and automotive chips, third-generation semiconductors, and high-power power supplies. We believe that benefiting from structural growth in booming fields such as downstream industrial control and the automotive sector, and the accelerated expansion of the company's multi-dimensional layout product line, the company's revenue is expected to continue to increase.
R&D investment and the number of R&D personnel have remained high, and the number of patents has steadily increased. According to the company announcement, the company's R&D expenses in 2023 were 737 million yuan, an increase of 17.78% year-on-year, accounting for 28.18% of revenue.
1Q24's R&D expenses were 208 million yuan, an increase of 19.93% over the previous year. The company's R&D team grew significantly in 2023, with a year-on-year increase of 14.84% to 1,029 people, accounting for 72.72% of the total number of employees.
Furthermore, in 2023, the company obtained 229 authorized patents, an increase of 41.36% over the previous year. We believe that the continuous increase in R&D investment and R&D personnel will help the company expand its product line in the future and continue to launch high-end products, which is expected to drive the continuous improvement of the company's profitability and optimization of the product structure.
Profit forecasting and valuation
We have basically kept the company's 2024/2025 revenue and 2024 net profit forecast unchanged. Considering factors such as the company's high R&D investment, we lowered the company's net profit in 2025 by 3.14% to 741 million yuan to maintain the industry's outperforming rating. We maintain the company's target price of 99.59 yuan, which corresponds to 45 times P/E in 2026. The current stock price corresponds to 32.5x P/E in 2026, and the target share price has 38.6% upside compared to the current stock price.
risks
Product development falls short of expectations; domestic substitution falls short of expectations; industry competition intensifies.