Hongtong Natural Gas(605169) 山西证券·2025-04-22 14:23Investment Rating - The report assigns an "Add-A" investment rating to the company, indicating a positive outlook for its stock performance in the coming months [8]. Core Insights - The company reported a significant increase in revenue and net profit for the year 2024, with operating income reaching 2.753 billion yuan, up 46.17% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders at 173 million yuan, up 13.05% year-on-year [4][5]. - The LNG production and sales volumes saw substantial growth, with LNG production increasing by 77.51% to 438,100 tons and sales rising by 80.68% to 438,900 tons [5]. - The company is enhancing its natural gas supply chain and expanding its gas station network, with plans to build and operate additional gas stations [6]. Financial Performance - Basic earnings per share (EPS) for 2024 were reported at 0.62 yuan, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 13.89% [3]. - The company achieved a return on equity (ROE) of 9.35%, which is an increase of 0.72 percentage points compared to the previous year [4]. - The gross profit margin for the natural gas sales business decreased to 15.29%, down 4.44 percentage points year-on-year, due to rising raw material costs and declining market prices [5]. Future Projections - The company expects EPS to grow to 0.70 yuan in 2025, 0.88 yuan in 2026, and 0.94 yuan in 2027, with corresponding dynamic price-to-earnings (PE) ratios of 13.2, 10.5, and 9.9 times, respectively [8]. - Revenue is projected to continue growing, with estimates of 3.222 billion yuan in 2025, 3.385 billion yuan in 2026, and 3.557 billion yuan in 2027, reflecting year-on-year growth rates of 17.0%, 5.1%, and 5.1% [11][13].