ZTE Corporation (00763) saw its shares decline by more than 4% after the release of its quarterly results. At the time of writing, the stock was down 2.97%, trading at HK$23.52, with a turnover of HK$94.761 million. The company reported its first-quarter financial results, showing revenue increased 6.13% year-on-year to RMB 34.988 billion, while net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 46.58% to RMB 1.31 billion. Factors affecting profitability included foreign exchange fluctuations, which turned net financial income from the same period last year into a net expense, representing a change of 200.28%. Increased impairment provisions and a reduction in policy-related benefits also weighed on profits. Huatai Securities noted that the decline in first-quarter profit was mainly due to reduced domestic investment in communication infrastructure, which put pressure on the scale of domestic network products and shifted the revenue mix toward lower-margin computing power businesses. The brokerage expressed optimism about ZTE's ability to stabilize its core connectivity business and suggested that its full-stack computing power layout may gradually enter a harvest period. It also indicated that with the batch adoption of self-developed chips, the profitability of ZTE's enterprise business is expected to improve significantly. Both the A-share and H-share listings maintained a "Buy" rating.
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