PING AN OF CHINA(601318)2024-10-22 00:38Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Buy" rating for Ping An Insurance [5] Core Views - The third quarter performance exceeded expectations, with a year-on-year increase in net profit of 36.1% to 119.18 billion yuan, surpassing the forecast of 34.7% [3][5] - The company's new business value (NBV) growth was also above expectations, increasing by 34.1% year-on-year to 35.16 billion yuan [4][5] - The report highlights improvements in the agent scale and profitability across core business segments, indicating a positive trend [4][5] Summary by Sections Market Data - Closing price: 56.90 yuan; Market capitalization: 612,395 million yuan; P/B ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 5.91% [2] Financial Performance - For the first three quarters of 2024, the company achieved a net profit of 119.18 billion yuan, with a quarterly net profit of 44.56 billion yuan, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 151.3% [3][4] - The operating profit for the same period was 113.82 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 5.5% [3] Business Segments - The three core business segments (life insurance, property insurance, and banking) collectively reported a year-on-year operating profit growth of 5.7% [3] - The property insurance segment saw a significant improvement in combined operating ratio (COR), which decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 97.8% [4] Investment Performance - The company reported an annualized net investment return of 3.8% and a comprehensive investment return of 5.0% for the first three quarters of 2024 [4] - Investment assets grew by 12.7% year-to-date, reaching 5.32 trillion yuan [4] Profit Forecast - The report raises profit forecasts for 2024-2026 to 147.37 billion yuan, 164.47 billion yuan, and 191.88 billion yuan respectively [5][6]