The overall operations of leading companies in sub-sectors are stable, and many companies maintain continuous growth momentum. While delivering satisfactory answers, these high-performance companies actively paid dividends in cash, which accounted for a high proportion of the year's profits, and some were characterized by high dividend yields.

■ Zhang Wei

The 2023 annual report of A-share listed companies has entered an intensive disclosure period. The disclosed annual reports and performance reports show that the overall operations of leading companies in sub-sectors are stable, and many companies maintain a momentum of continuous growth. While delivering satisfactory answers, these high-performance companies actively paid dividends in cash, which accounted for a high proportion of the year's profits, and some were characterized by high dividend yields.

The six major state-owned banks in the banking industry have all disclosed their 2023 annual reports. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank will achieve a year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to their parents in 2023 of 0.79%, 3.91%, 2.38%, 2.44%, 0.68%, and 1.23%. Although the downward pressure on the economy has been great in recent years and the banking industry has experienced a continuous narrowing of net interest margins, these six major state-owned banks have achieved continuous growth in performance. Asset quality is the "lifeline" of commercial banks. The annual report shows that as of the end of 2023, the non-performing loan ratios of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank were 1.36%, 1.33%, 1.27%, 1.37%, 1.33%, and 0.83%, respectively, down 0.02, 0.04, 0.05, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.01 percentage points respectively.

The consumer industry best reflects the macroeconomic situation, and the performance disclosures of relevant companies have attracted attention. Kweichow Moutai's total operating income in 2023 will increase by 18.04% year-on-year, and its parent net profit will increase by 19.16% year-on-year. In 2023, when the liquor industry is still in a period of deep transformation, Kweichow Moutai's performance will continue to grow, achieving a total operating income of 150.560 billion yuan, an increase rate of nearly five years, nearly doubling compared with 77.199 billion yuan in 2018. It is also five times the revenue of 31.071 billion yuan in 2013. Tsingtao Brewery and Chongqing Brewery are leaders in the beer industry. In 2023, net profit attributable to parents will increase by 15.02% and 5.78% respectively year-on-year. In the home appliance industry, Haier Zhijia and Midea Group's net profit attributable to its parent company in 2023 will increase by 12.81% and 14.10% year-on-year. Gree Electric predicts that its net profit attributable to its parent company in 2023 will increase by 10.2% to 19.6% over the previous year. Among them, Haier Zhijia's net profit attributable to its parents increased from 8.206 billion yuan in 2019 to 16.597 billion yuan in 2023, doubling in five years.

Looking at the airport and hotel industries that have been severely affected by the epidemic in previous years, the performance of relevant industry leaders in 2023 has improved significantly. After experiencing three consecutive years of losses, Shanghai Airport achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 934 million yuan in 2023. Jinjiang Hotel's net profit attributable to its parent company in 2023 will reach 1.002 billion yuan, an increase of 691.14% compared with 2022; BTG Hotel will turn losses into profit in 2023, achieving a net profit attributable to its parent company of 795 million yuan. Profits of these two leading companies in the hotel industry are rapidly recovering to levels close to 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the RevPARs of all BTG Home Inns hotels recovered to 91.2% of the same period in 2019, and the RevPARs of all hotels excluding lightly managed hotels recovered to 100.3% of the same period in 2019.

The annual reports of the three major telecom operators all performed well in 2023. The net profits of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom increased by 5.03%, 10.34%, and 11.96% respectively. Leading companies in new energy vehicles have generally achieved growth. Ningde Times 'net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 will reach 44.121 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.58%. Compared with the profit of 4.560 billion yuan in 2019, the profit of Ningde era has increased nearly 10 times in just five years.

In the past few years, some leading companies have experienced major performance fluctuations, especially in 2022, when some companies 'profits have declined significantly. However, from 2023, with the macroeconomic recovery, these leading companies have shown good performance repair capabilities. Due to their relatively significant industry status and outstanding advantages in market share, product innovation, talent and management, leading companies are still expected to show certainty of steady growth in performance in the future.

Cash dividends are an important form for listed companies to achieve return on investment, and they are also very important to high-performing leading companies. According to the profit distribution plan, the total amount of cash dividends planned by the six major state-owned banks will reach 413.4 billion yuan, and the dividend ratio will all reach 30% or more. Based on the latest share prices, the dividend yields of ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank all exceed 5%.

Relevant market analysis believes that stocks with high dividend yields are favored against the background of declining risk-free yields. Thanks to the two advantages of strong performance certainty and high dividend yield, the stock prices of the above-mentioned four large banks have been significantly stronger than the broader market since the second half of last year, and they are also prominent in the banking sector. Among them, Agricultural Bank's share price hit a new high in recent years on March 6, and the latest share price has increased by nearly 60% from the November 2022 low.

The proposed dividend amount of Kweichow Moutai is 38.786 billion yuan, accounting for 51.90% of the net profit attributable to the parent in 2023. It is worth mentioning that Kweichow Moutai has implemented special dividends in the past two years, of which a total of 56.55 billion yuan was distributed in cash dividends for the whole year of 2023, accounting for 75.67% of the company's net profit attributable to the parent in 2023. China Shenhua, the leader in the coal industry, plans to pay a cash dividend of 44.903 billion yuan, accounting for 75.2% of the company's net profit attributable to shareholders. The board of directors of China Mobile, a leading telecom operator, recommended that the dividend payout ratio for the full year of 2023 be 71%. The company also stated that starting from 2024, the profits distributed in cash within three years will gradually increase to more than 75% of the profits attributable to shareholders that year, striving to create greater value for shareholders.

Ping An said that from 2012 to mid-2023, the company's dividend level has continued to increase for 11 consecutive years, with a cumulative dividend of 24 times, and a total dividend of more than 280 billion yuan. The company adheres to a stable and sustainable cash dividend policy and concept, and expects that the total cash dividend for the whole year of 2023 will account for no less than 40% of the parent's net profit. In 2024, it is expected that the company will still maintain the frequency of cash dividends, share the company's high-quality development results with investors, and effectively enhance investors 'sense of gain.

Some high-performance leading companies actively responded to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's special action of "Double Improvement in Quality Returns" and chose special dividends to repay investors. Ningde Times plans to implement an annual cash dividend using 20% of the company's 2023 net profit attributable to listed companies as the distribution amount, and then implement a special cash dividend using 30% of the company's 2023 net profit attributable to listed companies. The total of the two items is for every 10 shares. A cash dividend of 50.28 yuan is distributed.

Relevant institutions believe that since the third quarter of 2023, a series of measures to stabilize growth, including monetary policy interest rate cuts and reserve requirements, have been effective, and economic growth momentum has continued to improve. Among them, macro data such as industrial production, investment, and exports in the first two months of this year were better than expected. The official PMI index rebounded sharply in March, indicating that the macro economy is expected to achieve a good start in the first quarter of this year.

Spring River water heating duck prophet. Leading companies in sub-sectors are expected to continue to maintain good operating capabilities in the first quarter of this year and perform well in the upcoming quarterly report.