China Unicom(SH:600050) Huachuang Securities·2024-08-16 05:23Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Recommended" investment rating for China Unicom (600050) [2][3]. Core Views - The company achieved a steady revenue growth of 2.87% year-on-year, with a significant net profit increase of 10.93% in the first half of 2024 [3]. - The report highlights the dual enhancement in user scale and value in the connected communication business, with a net increase of nearly 80 million users, surpassing 1 billion total connections [3]. - The intelligent computing and data business has become a crucial growth engine, with a revenue increase of 6.6% year-on-year, driven by significant growth in cloud services [3]. - Capital expenditures are well-controlled, with a total of 23.9 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, and a proposed interim dividend of 0.0959 yuan per share, reflecting a 20.5% increase [3]. Financial Performance - In H1 2024, the total revenue reached 197.34 billion yuan, with a net profit of 6.04 billion yuan [3]. - The gross margin was 26.01%, up by 0.92 percentage points, while the net margin was 6.97%, up by 0.48 percentage points [3]. - The company expects revenues of 395.14 billion, 414.81 billion, and 432.97 billion yuan for 2024, 2025, and 2026 respectively, with net profits projected at 9.05 billion, 9.99 billion, and 11.05 billion yuan [9][10]. User Growth and Business Segments - The connected communication business generated 125.1 billion yuan in revenue, with a 2.1% year-on-year increase, and a total of 3.4 billion mobile users [3]. - The penetration rate of 5G package users exceeded 80%, and the gigabit broadband user penetration rate surpassed 25% [3]. - The intelligent computing and data business revenue reached 43.5 billion yuan, with cloud service revenue growing by 24.3% year-on-year [3]. Shareholder Returns - The company has a dividend payout ratio of 55%, indicating a commitment to returning value to shareholders [3]. - The interim dividend proposed is significantly higher than the growth rate of basic earnings per share [3].