An Integrated Leader with Robust and Stable High Dividends
发布时间:2026-04-22 来源:华泰证券
Phoenix Media released its 2025 annual report: revenue reached RMB12,347mn (-9.25% YoY), attributable NP was RMB1,795mn (+12.37% YoY), and recurring NP was RMB1,552mn (-24.03% YoY), with both revenue and attributable NP slightly below our previous expectations (RMB12,766/1,904mn), which we attribute mainly to tighter standardization of market-based supplementary education materials. The company declared a total cash dividend of RMB1,272mn for the full year, accounting for 56.71% of its annual attributable NP, maintaining stable dividend payouts for three consecutive years. In April 2026, the company announced a public listing for the transfer of a 61.03% equity stake and creditor's rights in Phoenix Legend Pictures. If the transaction proceeds, it will help optimize resource allocation, reduce management costs, and further focus on core business development. With industry-wide structural adjustments, we believe the company maintains a leading competitive position in the market, offers stable shareholder returns, and presents solid long-term investment appeal. We maintain BUY.
Book publishing under structural adjustment, while company leadership solid
In 2025, the company's publishing/distribution/software/data services/other business revenues changed by -5.09/-9.84/-13.15/-0.84/+20.96% YoY, with corresponding GPM changes of -0.13/+0.41/-0.49/-7.35/-0.92pp YoY. We attribute the revenue decline to both the overall YoY decrease in book retail market's gross sales value (-2.24% YoY) and net sales value (-3.80% YoY) (OpenBook data) and the impact of standardized market-oriented educational supplements, with educational supplement publishing/distribution revenues down 5.33/9.07% YoY. The company maintains leading industry position in comprehensive strength and content resources, ranking second in market share of primary and secondary school standard textbooks; its share of net retail sales in the overall retail market reached 2.76%, ranking top in multiple sub-markets; its zxxk.com has grown into a leading provider of digital education content in China serving over 40,000 partner schools with over 70mn registered users and over 4mn monthly active teachers.
Expense ratio edged up, but dividend payout ratio stable
In 2025, the company's GPM reached 40.11%, up 1.47pp YoY; the sales/administrative/R&D expense ratios rose by 0.65/0.97/0.04pp YoY, mainly due to relatively rigid expenses and increased investment in projects and platform construction; the NPM improved by 3pp YoY to 14.73%, primarily benefiting from preferential tax policies for cultural enterprise restructuring. At end-2025, the company proposed a cash dividend of RMB0.4/share, combined with the interim dividend, totaling RMB1,272mn in annual cash dividends, maintaining stable dividend payouts for three consecutive years with an average payout ratio exceeding 60%, demonstrating its operational stability and commitment to long-term shareholder returns.
Earnings forecasts and valuation
In the short term, considering the structural adjustment in book industry demand and the impact of standardized market-oriented educational supplements, we forecast the company's 2026/2027/2028 attributable NP at RMB1,672/1,815/1,928mn (revised down by 8.6%/1.4%/- from previous estimates). Given the company's overall leading industry position, potential further optimization of resource allocation, and the empowerment potential of AI applications for its main business, we assign a 16x 2026 PE multiple, above its peers’ average of 11.44x on Wind consensus, resulting in a target price of RMB10.51 (previous: RMB10.47, on 14x 2025 PE). Maintain BUY.
Risks: unfavorable changes in teaching material policies, general book sales missing our estimates, rising paper costs, digitalization progress missing our estimates.