CICC believes that Tuhu-W (09690) still has a lot of room for improvement in profitability.
Intelligent financial APP learned that CICC released a research report stating that it maintains the "outperform" rating for Tuhu-W (09690) with a target price of HKD 24.5. The company announced 1H24 results: achieved revenue of 7.126 billion yuan, +9.3% year-on-year, +0.7% quarter-on-quarter; net profit attributable to parent company of 0.284 billion yuan, +378% year-on-year; adjusted net profit of 0.358 billion yuan, +67.3% year-on-year, +34% quarter-on-quarter. 1H24 performance meets the bank's expectations.
The bank mentioned that Tuhu's internal structure and cost control have been continuously optimized, and the net margin has improved significantly. The gross margin for 1H24 was 25.9%, +1.7ppt year-on-year; the net margin for 1H24 was 4%, +3.1ppt year-on-year. The improvement in profitability is mainly due to the company's enhanced upstream negotiation ability and the optimization of sales structure, as well as the increase in revenue proportion from dedicated and self-controlled products and automotive maintenance business. The total operating expense ratio for 1H24 was 23.6%, -0.9ppt year-on-year, and various expenses continued to be diluted year-on-year. Tuhu's integrated online and offline business model has accumulated deep expertise, and continues to promote measures to improve quality and efficiency, with the sales expense ratio and management expense ratio for 1H24 declining to 12.7% and 2.6% year-on-year, respectively. The bank believes that the proportion of the company's dedicated and self-controlled products is expected to continue to increase, and the continuous improvement in management quality and efficiency will still leave significant room for improvement in profitability.
In addition, as of June 30, 2024, the company had cash of nearly 7.1 billion yuan, with high financial security. In March 2024, the company announced a stock repurchase plan to deal with stock price fluctuations. According to the company's interim report, as of 1H24, it has repurchased approximately 12.29 million shares of Class A shares, with a total repurchase amount of 0.204 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the repurchased shares have been cancelled in early June. In June 2024, the company announced a second repurchase plan to enhance the flexibility of the compensation system and avoid dilution of the existing share capital caused by stock-based incentive plans, which reflects the company's high attention to shareholder interests. The bank believes that the company's subsequent cash for repurchase is sufficient, and it pays attention to laying a solid foundation for the interests of shareholders and employees in order to achieve healthy development.