On the afternoon of December 19, Roborock (688169), a global leader in sweeping robots, held a performance briefing for the third quarter of 2024 to answer questions from investors.

According to the data, Roborock was established in Beijing in July 2014 and landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in February 2020. The company's main business is the design, research and development, production and sales of intelligent hardware such as intelligent cleaning robots, and its main products include intelligent sweeping robots, floor scrubbers, washing and drying machines and other intelligent electrical appliances. The company's products have entered more than 170 countries and regions around the world, serving more than 15 million households. At present, the stone sweeper business has become the largest market share in the world.

In recent years, Roborock's revenue has increased year after year, with an operating income of 8.654 billion yuan in 2023, doubling compared with 2019, but the net profit fluctuates greatly, with year-on-year changes of 2.41%, -15.62% and 73.32% respectively from 2021 to 2023.

In the first three quarters of 2024, the company achieved a total operating income of about 7.007 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.2%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.472 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.22%; Operating cash flow decreased from 1.731 billion yuan to 1.060 billion yuan, a decrease of 38.77%. Among them, the net profit attributable to the parent company in the third quarter was 351 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 43.40%.

It is worth mentioning that from the first three quarters of 2023 to the first three quarters of 2024, Roborock's sales expense ratio increased year-on-year. Among them, from the first three quarters of 2022 to the first three quarters of 2024, the sales expense ratios were 17.95%, 18.82% and 22.31%, respectively.

At the performance briefing, some investors also asked related questions. Roborock explained at the performance briefing that the company further strengthened its domestic and overseas market expansion and launched a number of new products in the third quarter, so the related sales expenses increased year-on-year.

In recent years, the wave of AI has been surging, and some investors also expressed concern about it at the earnings briefing. Roborock said that at present, the company has launched new products with AI functions to improve the cleaning experience of products, including RRmind GPT to help products achieve intelligent interaction; The Reactive AI function implements dynamic obstacle avoidance, etc.

In addition, the company attaches great importance to the development of the washing and drying machine business, and related products solve the pain points of consumers through the third drying technology and cut into the market. According to the data of major e-commerce platforms, on the Jingdong platform, the sales of washing and drying machines increased by 282% year-on-year; On the Tmall platform, Roborock's sales of washer-dryer increased by 408% year-on-year, among which the mini washer-dryer M1 and molecular sieve washer-dryer Z1 ranked among the top sellers.

Some investors asked: The company's stock price continues to plummet, what measures does the company consider to take to manage the market value?

Roborock replied that the stock price fluctuations in the secondary market are affected by many aspects, and the company's board of directors and management will continue to improve quality and efficiency, actively build a sustainable shareholder value return system, and create more benefits for the company and investors.

In the secondary market, since hitting a high of 538.67 yuan in June 2021, Roborock's share price has continued to fall, with the lowest falling to 107.60 yuan, and the stock price has basically run below the issue price (271.12 yuan) in the past two years. As of the close of trading on the 19th, Roborock fell 1.43% to 218.22 yuan per share, with a market value of 40.3 billion yuan.