With the disclosure of the annual report and the first quarterly report, the results of the 2023 and first quarter of 2024 of the Science and Technology Innovation Board have been announced.
In 2023, all 571 companies on the STAR Market will achieve a total operating income of about 1.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%, and a net profit of 75.96 billion yuan for the whole year. In the first quarter of 2024, in addition to SMIC, Hua Hong, BeiGene, and InnoCare, 567 companies on the STAR Market achieved a total operating income of RMB277.55 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%, and a total net profit of RMB17.21 billion, unchanged from the same period last year.
The investment "toolbox" of the Science and Technology Innovation Board has been continuously enriched. At present, the number of indexes on the Science and Technology Innovation Board has reached 15, and the scale of domestic and foreign products is nearly 160 billion yuan. At the same time, the number of active accounts of professional institutional investors continued to increase, exceeding 70,000 by the end of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 30%, of which institutional investors accounted for nearly 7%.
More than 60% of the company's revenue growth in 2023 is positive
Based on 2019, the compound growth rate of operating income and net profit of companies on the STAR Market in the past four years reached 23.3% and 24.4%, respectively. Among them, 92 companies have a compound growth rate of more than 30% in operating income and net profit, 187 companies have achieved growth in operating income for four consecutive years, and 75 companies have achieved positive net profit growth for four consecutive years.
Looking specifically at the 2023 annual performance, more than sixty percent of companies have achieved positive growth in operating income, and 47 companies have increased their operating income by more than 50%. In 2023, against the backdrop of sluggish global trade and frequent economic and trade frictions, companies on the STAR Market will achieve a total overseas revenue of 402.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%, accounting for 28.8% of the overall revenue of the sector.
In terms of industry, there are more than 110 biomedical companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, bringing together multiple subdivisions such as biological drugs, chemical drugs, medical devices, and pharmaceutical R&D outsourcing services, and deeply involved in key treatment scenarios such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. At present, more than 50 drugs from 27 companies have been approved for marketing, and more than 200 drugs have entered the clinical trial stage, with a year-on-year increase of 37.8% in total operating income in 2023.
There are more than 120 high-end equipment manufacturing companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, covering many important industrial chains and production links such as aerospace, industrial robots, industrial machine tools, and laser processing. In 2023, the performance will continue to grow, of which the net profit of industrial machine tools, laser processing and other industrial chains will increase by 8.8% and 7.7% year-on-year respectively.
In terms of operating quality, in 2023, the average annual gross profit margin of companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board will reach 41.7%, the gross profit margin of more than one-third of the companies will exceed 50%, and the gross profit margin of 59 companies will increase by more than 5 percentage points compared with the previous year. In terms of cash flow, the net cash flow from operating activities of companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2023 will total 139.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%.
R&D investment has reached a new high. In 2023, the total R&D investment of companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board will reach 156.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%, the median proportion of R&D investment in operating income will be 12.2%, and the R&D intensity of 83 companies will exceed 20% for three consecutive years. As of the end of 2023, the STAR Market has gathered more than 230,000 scientific research talents, and R&D personnel account for more than 3% of the total number of employees.
Thanks to the high R&D investment, the company has made some new progress and breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation in 2023. As of the end of 2023, a total of 124 projects led or participated in by the company have won major awards such as the National Science and Technology Award, and 60% of the company's core technologies have reached the international or domestic advanced level, and more than 100,000 invention patents have been formed, including more than 10,000 patents from SMIC and SIEMIC Mobile.
At the same time, the results of the first quarter of 2024 of the Science and Technology Innovation Board were also released. In the first quarter, 85 companies achieved a year-on-year increase in operating income, and 151 companies achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit of more than 50%, and 151 companies achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit. In particular, the performance of integrated circuits, intelligent testing and other sub-sectors is outstanding, with a year-on-year growth rate of 27.8% and 62.3% in operating income.
In the first quarter of 2024, the total R&D investment of companies on the STAR Market was 32.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%, and the total expenditure on the purchase and construction of fixed assets, intangible assets and other long-term assets was 53.92 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, and more than 30 companies disclosed that R&D and production projects are accelerating.
Institutional investors account for nearly 70% of their holdings
Companies on the STAR Market use capital market tools to motivate talents, refinancing, mergers and acquisitions, etc., and enhance investors' sense of gain through dividends, buybacks, and increased holdings.
As of the end of 2023, a total of 369 companies on the STAR Market have launched 539 single equity incentive plans, with a sector coverage rate of 65%, involving more than 100,000 core technical and business personnel. More than 9 percent of the companies choose the second type of restricted stock as an incentive tool.
At present, the founding team of more than sixty percent of the companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board is scientists, engineers and other scientific research talents or industry experts, nearly three-thirds of the company's actual controllers concurrently serve as core technical personnel, and nearly three-thirds of the company's actual controllers have doctoral degrees.
In terms of continuous financing development, in 2023, a total of 50 refinancing transactions will be implemented by companies on the STAR Market, with a financing amount of more than 56 billion yuan, and 8 companies will efficiently solve their capital needs through the "small and fast" mechanism.
In terms of industrial mergers and acquisitions, in 2023, there will be more than 30 equity acquisition transactions with a transaction value of more than 100 million yuan among companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, of which 4 constitute major asset restructuring or involve the issuance of securities. In addition, a number of companies on the STAR Market have introduced state-owned capital or important industrial capital.
As of April 30, 2024, 363 listed companies on the STAR Market have disclosed their 2024 action plans for improving quality, efficiency and return, accounting for 63.6% of the total number of companies.
At the same time, the science and technology innovation board companies threw out plans such as dividends, repurchases, and increased holdings. In terms of cash dividends, about seventy percent of the companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board have launched cash dividend plans for 2023, with a total annual cumulative dividend of 42.47 billion yuan, with more than 300 companies having a cash dividend ratio of more than 30%, and 10 companies having an annual cumulative dividend of more than 500 million yuan.
In terms of repurchases, a total of 146 companies will issue 152 repurchase plans in 2023, with an upper limit of 17.89 billion yuan to be repurchased, of which 20 companies, including Jinbo and Espressif Technology, have implemented multi-phase repurchase plans. In terms of increasing holdings, a total of 42 companies will release 45 shareholding plans in 2023, and the upper limit of the amount of relevant personnel to increase their holdings will reach 1.26 billion yuan.
The investment "toolbox" is also constantly enriched. Since 2023, indices such as the Science and Technology Innovation 100 Index and the Science and Technology Innovation ESG Index have been released one after another, and the number of indices on the Science and Technology Innovation Board has reached 15, with a scale of nearly 160 billion yuan of domestic and foreign products. Among them, the product scale of the Science and Technology Innovation 50 ETF is nearly 130 billion yuan, and the product scale of the Science and Technology Innovation 100 ETF is nearly 19 billion yuan, an increase of 42.3% over the issuance scale. In terms of derivatives, in June 2023, the STAR 50 ETF options were listed, becoming the first new stock option product launched under the background of the comprehensive registration system.
The number of active accounts of professional institutional investors continued to increase, exceeding 70,000 by the end of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 30%, of which the number of active accounts of enterprise annuities and public funds grew rapidly, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 200% and 10% respectively, and institutional investors accounted for nearly 70% of their holdings (professional institutional investors and general institutional investors accounted for about 4% and 3% of the circulating market value respectively), of which long-term funds such as social security, insurance, and annuities accounted for nearly 5%.
(This article is from Yicai)