CICC: Maintains BYD COMPANY (01211) "Outperform" rating, target price raised to HKD 410

CICC released a research report stating that it maintains a "industry outperformance" rating for BYD COMPANY (01211), with the catalyst of the smart driving trend and relatively low valuation of the Hong Kong stock, raising the H-share target price by 16% to 410 Hong Kong dollars. The bank maintains its profit forecast for BYD Company Limited in 2024, taking into consideration economies of scale and rising pricing for new cars, and raising the net profit for 2025 by 11% to 55.56 billion RMB, introducing for the first time a net profit of 68.7 billion RMB for 2026. The report mentions that the BYD Company Limited DM5.0 product cycle is strong, with the company maintaining a high market share in 2024. According to production and sales reports, the total sales volume of the company in 2024 was 4.272 million vehicles, an increase of 41.3% year-on-year; based on the CPCA standard, the company's wholesale market share in 2024 remained at around 35%. In terms of brands, benefiting from the strong DM5.0 product cycle, BYD's sales increased to 4.06 million vehicles. In the overseas market, the company's total sales of new energy passenger vehicles in 2024 were 417,000 vehicles, an increase of 71.9% year-on-year. CICC believes that as an industry leader, BYD Company Limited is expected to drive the popularization of smart driving models below 150,000 RMB and label them with smart driving; at the same time, the company is committed to popularizing mid-range smart driving models and doing well in high-end smart driving, which is expected to enhance product competitiveness, stabilize prices, and increase profits.