CHINA TELECOM(601728) 华鑫证券·2024-12-11 06:57Investment Rating - The report assigns a "Buy" rating for China Telecom (601728.SH) [1] Core Insights - The company is seizing opportunities in digitalization, leading to stable revenue growth. In the first three quarters of 2024, the company achieved revenue of 391.968 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.85% [1] - The dual drivers of basic and industrial digitalization services are injecting vitality into the company's performance [1] - Continuous investment in R&D and significant cost reduction efforts have yielded notable results [1] Revenue and Profit Forecast - The forecast for the company's revenue from 2024 to 2026 is 530.746 billion yuan, 556.169 billion yuan, and 582.921 billion yuan respectively, with corresponding EPS of 0.36 yuan, 0.39 yuan, and 0.41 yuan [2][5] - The expected growth rates for revenue are 4.5% in 2024, 4.8% in 2025, and 4.8% in 2026 [2][5] Business Performance - In mobile communications, the company added 14.9 million net users, reaching a total of 423 million mobile users, with 5G package users at 345 million and a penetration rate of 81.6% [1] - In fixed-line and smart home services, the number of wired broadband users reached 196 million, with smart home revenue growing by 17.0% year-on-year [1] - The industrial digitalization business generated revenue of 105.549 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 5.8% [1] R&D and Cost Management - The company increased R&D expenditure to 8.75 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 19.3% [1] - Sales expenses decreased by 3.2% year-on-year to 39.435 billion yuan, while management expenses and financial expenses also saw slight reductions [1]