Event: The company released its 2023 annual report and 24Q1 quarterly report:
1) 2023: Revenue of 854 million yuan, +3.02% year on year; net profit to mother of 235 million yuan, -15.64% year on year; net profit without return to mother 162 million yuan, -25.23% year on year. Gross profit margin 38.41%, -3.68pct year over year.
2) 23Q4: Revenue of 243 million yuan, +10.03% month-on-month; net profit to mother of 62 million yuan, -23.10% year-on-year, +6.43% month-on-month; net profit after deducting non-return to mother of 45 million yuan, -19.42% year-on-year, +36.42% month-on-month. Gross profit margin of 35.51%, -7.55pct yoy, -2.75pct month-on-month.
3) 24Q1: Revenue of 216 million yuan, +14.74% year over month, -11.32% month on month; net profit to mother of 0.46 million yuan, -3.85% year on month, -26.03% month on month; net profit without return to mother of 40 million yuan, +27.09% year on year, -11.81% month on month. Gross profit margin 37.71%, -0.98pct year over year, +2.20pct month-on-month.
The advantageous business layout is deepening, and the emerging business is forging ahead: the company's high-end microscopes have been replaced by more than 4%, the NSR950 super-resolution microscope has completed the first set of sales and accelerated overseas market development; the number one global shipment volume of bar code scanning core optical components, and close cooperation with leading global customers; vehicle lidar components have successfully achieved large-scale mass production in 23 years, and vehicle optics revenue has exceeded 90 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 50%; medical optics has grown by more than 50% in the past 2 years, covering 70% of the domestic field of core optical components for laparoscopy systems These important players have developed a variety of high-end medical devices for pathological diagnosis through in-depth cooperation and batch shipment of endoscopic lenses and components with well-known domestic, Japanese, and European companies.
Demand for bar code scanning gradually recovered, and 24Q1 withheld overseas opportunities to vigorously develop high-end microscope business; in terms of optical components, the backlog of leading barcode equipment companies had been digested in nearly 2 years. The company accelerated the recovery of the bar code component business and gradually batched complex component business, expanded production capacity to promote the lidar optical component business, and stepped up the launch of new medical optical products, driving the gradual recovery of performance. The net profit of 24Q1 net profit after deducting non-return to mother achieved a year-on-year ratio of +27.09%.
A large percentage of dividends give back to investors, showing confidence in future operations: According to the 2023 profit distribution plan, the company plans to distribute cash dividends of RMB 9.55 yuan (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares, and plans to distribute a discovery dividend of about RMB 106 million (tax included), accounting for 45.1% of net profit returned to the mother in '23. This is the highest dividend amount and dividend ratio in the year since the company went public, fully demonstrating the company's confidence in future operations.
Investment advice: According to the latest financial data, we have adjusted profit expectations. We expect the company's net profit to be 30/38/480 million yuan in 2023-25 (previously, 38/51 million yuan in 2024-25), corresponding to PE of 27/21/17 times, maintaining a “buy” rating.
Risk warning: the risk of new product launches falling short of expectations, medical business development falling short of expectations, and untimely updates of research and usage data