Summary of the report:
Event: on November 30, 2022, Zhihu Inc. released his financial results for the third quarter of 2022. Q3 realized operating income of 912 million yuan, an increase of 10.7% over the same period last year and 9.1% month-on-month growth. The net loss of 2022Q3's shareholders belonging to the parent company was 300 million yuan, compared with a loss of 270 million yuan in the same period last year, and a loss of 487 million yuan in the second quarter, narrowing the loss compared with the previous quarter. The operating profit margin was-30.6% and the net interest rate was-32.9%.
Comments:
Member business continues to grow steadily, and education business has become a new engine. The company's "sense of achievement" strategy has achieved remarkable results. The strategic goal of "ecology first" promotes the output of high-quality content in the community, and users' willingness to pay continues to improve. In the third quarter of 2022, the company's member business income was 335 million yuan, an increase of 88.1% over the same period last year and 23.7% month-on-month, of which the number of paying users reached 10.9 million and the payment rate was 11.24%.
In addition, the education business is growing rapidly, with revenue reaching 78 million yuan in the third quarter, compared with 14 million yuan in the same period last year. The company develops vocational education with its own community characteristics, and now it has achieved initial results, and the follow-up is expected to become a new engine of business growth.
The marketing business is affected by the prosperity of the industry, and the commercial solution is resilient. The company's marketing-related business declined in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, of which advertising revenue was 197 million yuan, down 38.7% from the same period last year, and revenue from commercial solutions was 265 million yuan, down 4.7% from the same period last year, up 10.3% from the previous year. In the context of the declining prosperity of the marketing industry, the company's commercial business is resilient and keeps growing month-on-month, reflecting the commercial advantages brought about by the company's own unique community atmosphere.
The results of reducing costs and increasing efficiency appeared, and the losses narrowed month-on-month. The company's net loss to its parent shareholders in the third quarter was 300 million yuan, down 38.4% from the previous quarter, and its core driver was the reduction in related expenses. Among them, the total cost of 2022Q3 company is 723 million yuan,-3.3% compared with the same period last year, and-16% compared with the previous year. Reducing cost and increasing efficiency is beginning to bear fruit, and we expect that as the company continues to promote cost reduction, efficiency and layoff compensation and other one-off measures to further reduce expenditure, the follow-up expense rate is expected to continue to decline.
Investment suggestion: taking into account the continuous decline of the macro environment and the acceleration of the company's cost reduction and efficiency promotion, adjust the operating income in 2022-2024 to 35.34max 52.2116037 million yuan (the previous value is 3628pm 53.89 / 7.33 billion yuan), return to the mother's net profit to-17.15ppb 692.16million yuan (the previous value-1.803lb 743cm 148m), and maintain the "buy" rating.
Risk tips: macro-economy is not as expected; industry supervision is strengthened