First(603806) 中原证券·2025-04-16 12:23Investment Rating - The investment rating for the company is "Buy" (maintained) [2][27] Core Views - The company's performance in 2024 was impacted by the photovoltaic business, with total revenue declining by 15.23% year-on-year to 19.15 billion yuan, and net profit decreasing by 29.33% to 1.31 billion yuan [7][10] - Despite the challenges in the photovoltaic sector, the company has shown significant improvement in operating cash flow, which turned positive at 4.39 billion yuan, attributed to increased sales collections and reduced cash payments for raw materials [10] - The company maintains a strong position in the photovoltaic encapsulant market, with a global market share of around 50%, and a sales volume of 2.81 billion square meters, up 24.98% year-on-year [10][13] - The company is expanding its overseas production capacity in Thailand and Vietnam to mitigate international trade risks and ensure sales in foreign markets [10] - The electronic materials and functional films segment is expected to become a new growth driver, with significant sales increases in photosensitive dry films and aluminum-plastic films [10][13] Financial Summary - The company's gross profit margin for photovoltaic encapsulants was 14.72%, showing a slight increase of 0.12 percentage points year-on-year, despite a significant drop in sales price [10] - The projected net profits for 2025, 2026, and 2027 are estimated at 1.51 billion, 1.81 billion, and 2.12 billion yuan respectively, with corresponding diluted EPS of 0.58, 0.69, and 0.81 yuan [12][13] - The company’s financial ratios indicate a return on equity (ROE) of 7.97% for 2024, with expectations for gradual improvement in the following years [12][13]