智通财经网·2025-09-02 03:19Core Viewpoint - ZTE Corporation's stock has dropped over 7% following disappointing second-quarter earnings, despite a strong revenue growth in the first half of the year [1] Financial Performance - ZTE reported a revenue of 71.553 billion yuan for the first half of the year, representing a year-on-year increase of 14.51% [1] - The net profit for the same period was 5.058 billion yuan, showing a year-on-year decline of 11.77% [1] - The gross margin stood at 32.45%, which is a decrease of 7.99% compared to the previous year [1] Market Analysis - Jefferies noted that ZTE's stock price had increased by approximately 52% over the past three months, driven by optimism surrounding artificial intelligence and ASIC chip growth [1] - However, the second-quarter performance fell short of market expectations, indicating that the market may have been overly optimistic [1] - Jefferies has revised its net profit forecasts for ZTE downwards, predicting it to be 26% and 31% lower than market expectations for the next two years, respectively [1] Investment Rating - Jefferies downgraded its investment rating for ZTE from "Hold" to "Underperform," while raising the target price to 27.27 HKD [1] - Nomura's report highlighted that ZTE is maintaining effective cost management, particularly in R&D, which partially offsets the impact of declining gross margins [1] - Nomura expects ZTE to face continued pressure on profit margins in the second half of the year, with a gradual recovery starting next year due to better cost optimization [1] Future Projections - Nomura has increased its revenue forecasts for ZTE for the years 2025 to 2027 by 8.5% to 10%, reflecting stronger demand for AI servers [1] - However, the same report has lowered the profit forecasts for the same period by 4% to 21%, indicating concerns over margin dilution [1]