Reporter | Yin Jingfei
Editor |
Ecovacs (603486.SH) is known as the "sweeping house", announced on the evening of January 21 that it is expected that the net profit in 2021 will reach 2 billion to 2.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 211% to 219%. Ecovacs achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 1.33 billion in the first three quarters of 2021. Based on this calculation, Ecovacs achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 670 million to RMB 720 million in the fourth quarter, a month-on-month increase of 39% to 50%.
, but the market did not buy it. The stock fell at the opening on January 24, and as of midday trading that day, the decline reached 0.79%, at 135.4 yuan per share.
Regarding the expected increase in performance, the company explained that based on the successful creation of the "Tianke" brand-scale business in 2020, the company continued to deepen the Ecovacs dual-wheel drive strategy in 2021, successfully launched a number of home service robots and high-end smart life appliances products, promoting the rapid growth of business revenue of the two major brands.
In addition, on the basis of rapid revenue growth, the company's product structure has also continued to be optimized. While leading the industry's product technology to achieve high-end, the overall gross profit margin has also been improved, further enhancing the company's overall profitability. Despite this, in 2021, affected by factors such as the global macroeconomic , the company's operations have experienced challenges in raw material costs, chip supply, transportation costs and foreign exchange, such as many other companies in the industry and outside the industry.
It should be noted that one of the major reasons for the rapid increase in Ecovacs' revenue is the surge in sales expenses. From January to September 2021, Ecovacs' revenue was 8.2 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 10% year-on-year. During the same period, sales expenses reached 1.893 billion yuan, an increase of 96.4% compared with the same period in 2020, accounting for as much as 23% of revenue. While is focusing on sales, it shows signs of light research and development. In the first three quarters of 2021, the company's R&D expenses were 330 million yuan, accounting for only 4% of revenue, a year-on-year increase of 54%.
Currently, Ecovacs' total market value is 77.3 billion yuan, and its price-to-earnings ratio is 45 times. Since 2021, Ecovacs has experienced ups and downs in its stock price. As of July 15, 2021, the stock price rose by more than 180% that year, from the stock price of 88.6 yuan per share in early January 2021 to the highest point of 252.7 yuan per share, on July 15, 2021, the company's market value exceeded 143 billion yuan . Since late July 2021, the company's valuation has fallen by nearly 46% since the highest point, and the market value of has fallen by more than 65 billion yuan in half a year. One reason for the pullback of
's stock price is the reduction of holdings by the original major shareholder. As one of the original major shareholders, Taiyikai Electric Appliances reduced its holdings by 12.978 million shares from January 26 to June 8, 2021 alone, with a total reduction of nearly 1.7 billion yuan. From August 16, 2021 to January December 2022, Taiyikai cashed out 1.625 billion yuan, and the cumulative cashing out exceeded 3 billion yuan in the above period. In terms of research reports on
stocks, in 2021, Ecovacs received a total of 70 research reports from 27 securities firms, with a maximum target price of 250 yuan. On January 21, 2022, when the company issued an announcement of expected increase in performance, three more brokerages issued research reports to give Ecovacs an buy rating , which may be called deepening the dual-brand drive continuous high growth in performance, or it may be called optimistic about the high-prosperity industry, and the dual-brands continue to lead.
In the field of sweeping robots, competition is becoming increasingly fierce. In the past, there were giants such as Midea, Haier , Xiaomi , and later, there were small and medium-sized home service robot manufacturers and Internet companies. Can Ecovacs, whose valuation is 45 times, really return to the high of 250 yuan per share? Can the securities research reports that keep waving the flag for Ecovacs really become a reality?
