Citi's report pointed out that although Zoomlion's (01157.HK) revenue decline widened from 7% in the second quarter to 14% in the third quarter on an annual basis, the third-quarter profit still increased by 4% year-on-year, performing better than management's view that the third quarter might be a transitional period, mainly attributed to continued cost reduction, especially in research and development.

Citi emphasized that Zoomlion is focusing on enhancing shareholder returns, raising profit forecasts for 2024 and 2025 by 4% and 7% respectively, mainly due to lowering operating expenditure forecasts for these two years. At the same time, based on a 2025 forecast market rate of 0.7 times, the target price was raised from 3.8 yuan to 5.3 yuan. However, after the stock surged by over 40% in the past two months, a "neutral" rating was maintained, preferring Sany Heavy Industry (600031.SH) over Zoomlion.