CBEST(600729) 海通证券·2024-07-12 01:01Investment Rating - The investment rating for the company is "Outperform the Market" [19]. Core Views - The company reported a revenue of 8.98 billion yuan for the first half of 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 11.56%. The net profit attributable to the parent company was 712 million yuan, down 21.06% year-on-year, while the net profit excluding non-recurring items was 704 million yuan, a decrease of 13.06% [8][9]. - The decline in net profit is primarily attributed to high investment income and non-recurring gains from the previous year. After excluding these factors, the net profit showed a smaller decline of 4.52% [9]. - The company is actively exploring new business models, such as the "Fresh + Discount" supermarket format, which aims to optimize and restructure the supply chain, reduce costs, and enhance service quality [10]. - The profit forecast for 2024-2026 is set at 1.34 billion yuan, 1.50 billion yuan, and 1.64 billion yuan respectively, with expected growth rates of 1.6%, 12.0%, and 9.5% [10]. Financial Summary - The company’s total revenue for 2023 is projected at 18.985 billion yuan, with a net profit of 1.315 billion yuan, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 48.8% [12]. - The earnings per share (EPS) for 2023 is estimated at 2.95 yuan, with a projected increase to 3.67 yuan by 2026 [12]. - The gross margin is expected to remain stable around 25.7% to 26.5% over the forecast period [12]. - The return on equity (ROE) is projected to decrease from 21.1% in 2023 to 18.6% by 2026 [12]. Valuation - The valuation for the retail business is based on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 12-15 times for the retail segment and 5 times for the financial investment segment, leading to a reasonable market capitalization range of 11.3 billion to 13.3 billion yuan [13]. - The estimated reasonable value per share is between 25.28 yuan and 29.71 yuan [13].