The Zhitong Finance App learned that as leaders in the clean appliance industry release new flagship products one after another, the market's focus is once again on industry innovation and technological progress. Recently, Stone Technology (688169.SH) launched the new P10S Pro and P10S vacuum robot products, which are upgraded products of Stone's popular P series. According to information, the new Stone product not only integrates a “double arm” design with a self-maintained double screw cleaning system to further clean dead spots, but also innovatively designed a mini base station to naturally fit the home design. Stone incorporates the most advanced technology in the industry into the cost-effective P series, which not only enhances product competitiveness, but also allows Stone's new products to quickly occupy the high ground in the industry.

According to Debon Securities's valuation data for key domestic home appliance companies, from the beginning of 2024 to February 8, Stone Technology's stock price increased by 14.8%, ranking in the top three stock price increases of key Debon Home Appliance valuation companies.

In addition, Debon Securities's survey of sales data for small household appliances sector companies showed that Stone Technology's offline sales increased sharply in December 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2023, with year-on-year increases of 300% and 409%, respectively; online sales also increased 14% and 35% year-on-year respectively during the same period. According to Aowei Cloud Network data, the company's sales market share in 2023 increased by 3 percentage points year-on-year to 24%.

In fact, there has been a slowdown in the growth of the domestic sweeping robot industry since 2023. However, the main reason is that sales of non-self-cleaning products for domestic sweeping robots fell by about 40% in 2023, slowing down the overall growth rate of the industry, but self-cleaning products have maintained a rapid growth trend. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the sales growth rate of self-cleaning sweeper products in 2022 and 2023 was 75% and 20%, respectively, accounting for 67% and 81% of the total industry. Self-cleaning products continued to grow in volume against the backdrop of a sharp increase in cost performance and continuous accumulation of reputation. Among them, Stone Technology reduces costs through technology, continues to iterate products and launch new products, and is expected to continue to increase its share with high-quality and cost-effective products.

In terms of the global market, Stone Technology also performed well in overseas markets. Take the US and Asia market as an example. According to Magic Mirror data, sales of the sweeper industry in the US and Asia increased 1.5% year on year to reach 62.493 million US dollars in January; sales volume was 41,000 units, down 5.6% year on year. Among them, Stone Technology's sales increased 89.6% year on year to 147.69 million US dollars. Sales volume increased sharply by 85.8% to 36,000 units, and its sales market share reached 23.6%, surpassing iRobot to become number one in the US and Asian markets.

Open Source Securities believes that the US offline channels are mainly mid-range and low-end single dust collection products. Stone Technology has entered nearly 200 Target stores and has plenty of room to expand. It is optimistic that it will rely on product innovation and channel breakthroughs. In the future, it is optimistic that Stone Technology will continue to seize opportunities to increase the penetration rate of sweepers at overseas all-purpose base stations.

Due to its dual efforts in product strength and market penetration, Stone Technology has shown strong growth in terms of performance, with the dual benefits of domestic demand restoration trends and overseas demand.

According to the 2023 performance pre-increase announcement issued by Shitou Technology in late January this year, Stone Technology expects the company's net profit to reach 2 billion yuan to 2.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.99% to 85.89%; the performance forecast also shows that the company's overseas revenue has grown rapidly. The reporter looked through financial data from previous years and found that since the second quarter of 2023, the net profit scale of Shitou Technology's return to mother in a single quarter has continuously broken through record highs, and net profit to mother in 2023 also reached the highest value since 2019.

In response, Haitong International believes that sweepers have two excellent characteristics similar to white electricity, namely long slopes, heavy snow, and a good competitive pattern. As a global leader in the industry, Stone Technology will fully benefit from the growth of the industry. Haitong International further analyzed that volume and price increases in overseas markets, and Chinese brands still have the dividends of channel expansion, share growth, and structural upgrades. Leading Chinese enterprises will continue to lead technology upgrades and iterations, their competitive advantages in products will become more obvious, and their global market share will continue to increase dramatically. At the same time, as the Chinese brand channel continues to expand, there is still room for a significant increase in Stone Technology's share. In addition to the sharp increase in sales volume, under the leadership and impetus of Chinese brands, product structure upgrades for overseas products in recent years have led to a continuous rise in average prices in the industry.

It is worth noting that Debon Securities gave good expectations for Stone Technology's corporate value and potential return on investment over the next three years. It also gave a 2-digit positive growth forecast for net profit to the mother, and gave a 2-digit positive growth forecast for net profit growth, and based on the growth of the industry and the competitive advantage of Stone Technology, gave Stone Technology a continuous positive PE valuation (price-earnings ratio) of 23E-25E in 2024. The corresponding estimated PE is 21 times, 18 times, and 15 times the estimated PE.

As Chinese sweeper brands continue to increase their global product strength and share growth, domestic enterprises will welcome more opportunities in an environment where market space is broadened and domestic policies are favorable. In particular, leading technology home appliance companies such as Stone Technology will lead the industry to a new round of growth in 2024 with an “accelerated” attitude on the basis of innovative capabilities and strong market competitiveness.