牧原股份：盈利能力坚实，股东回报加码

Investment Rating - The investment rating for the company is "Buy," indicating an expected return exceeding 10% relative to the CSI 300 index over the next six months [1][9]. Core Views - The company has demonstrated solid profitability, with a significant increase in net profit by 668.9% year-on-year for the first three quarters of 2024, reaching 10.481 billion yuan [1]. - The company plans to enhance shareholder returns, proposing a total cash dividend of 4.505 billion yuan, which constitutes 40.06% of its net profit for the same period [1]. - The company has initiated a share repurchase plan amounting to 3-4 billion yuan, reflecting confidence in its fundamentals and supporting employee incentives and management operations [1]. Summary by Sections Financial Performance - For the first three quarters of 2024, the company achieved operating revenue of 96.775 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.64% [1]. - The company sold 50.144 million pigs from January to September 2024, marking a 6.7% increase year-on-year [1]. - The average selling price of pigs in September was 18.65 yuan/kg, up 17.9% year-on-year [1]. - The overall gross margin for Q3 was 30.84%, with a quarter-on-quarter increase of 14.30 percentage points and a year-on-year increase of 20.8 percentage points [1]. Shareholder Returns - The company has revised its dividend policy to distribute at least 40% of its distributable profits in cash annually, up from 20% [1]. - The proposed dividend distribution of 4.505 billion yuan is in response to national calls for increased cash dividends [1]. Management and Strategy - The company continues to optimize breeding management and cost control, with total costs in September dropping to slightly below 13.7 yuan/kg, a decrease of over 2 yuan/kg since the beginning of the year [1]. - The company is focused on maintaining a competitive edge in breeding management and cost advantages, which are expected to sustain profitability in the long term [1].