On October 20, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (hereinafter referred to as CATL) released its third-quarter report for 2026.
The data shows that the company achieved revenue of 165.22 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 58.6%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 21.25 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%.
Combined sales of power batteries and energy storage exceeded 260GWh, with energy storage accounting for about one-quarter, and sales growth rate approaching 60% year-on-year, indicating robust market demand.
At the end of the period, monetary funds and trading financial assets totaled more than 430 billion yuan, indicating ample cash reserves.
In terms of market share, the company's power batteries continued to rank first globally. According to SNE data, from January to August 2026, the company's global market share of power battery usage was 39.4%, up 1.7 percentage points year-on-year; according to Power Battery Alliance data, from January to September 2026, the company's domestic power battery market share reached 44.16%, up 1.41 percentage points year-on-year.
A fund manager of a large public fund who has long tracked CATL told reporters that the market has basically digested previous negative information, the company has proposed targeted response measures for the third-quarter report, and performance for the next two to three quarters can be viewed optimistically; CATL's dividend yield is considerable, making it a high-quality investment target suitable for medium- to long-term holding.
The power equipment and new energy team at Changjiang Securities pointed out in its latest in-depth report that CATL's current valuation is at a historical low, and market disagreements mainly focus on core issues such as medium-term demand growth, short-term production scheduling fluctuations, battery supply-demand trends, the impact of tax subsidy reductions, and the evolution of the high-end vehicle battery landscape.
In response to these disagreements, the report provides clear optimistic answers. On the demand side, the report believes that the demand structure of this lithium battery prosperity cycle is diversified, with domestic large-scale storage and domestic power accounting for about 13% and 25% of total demand respectively, while the influence of European power, domestic commercial vehicles, emerging market power, and non-U.S. energy storage on demand is strengthening. Policy support and economic-driven factors are resonating, and the growth trend is clear. It is expected that the compound growth rate of lithium battery demand will remain above 20% through 2030.
Regarding market concerns about short-term production scheduling fluctuations, the report believes they are mainly due to adjustments in corporate inventory strategies. As lithium carbonate prices gradually enter a cost-support range and inventory strategies stabilize, production scheduling fluctuations are expected to ease.
On the profit side, in response to concerns about rising capital expenditure and a wave of capacity expansion, the report believes the impact is limited. First, lithium battery production lines are mostly customized for customers, and retaining a certain capacity buffer during most periods is reasonable, so the drag on profits from depreciation is limited; second, lithium batteries are a differentiated, market-segmented industry, and CATL's product structure leans more toward high-end and overseas markets, making it relatively less affected by homogeneous price competition in the low- and mid-end segments; third, disorderly capacity expansion has attracted policy attention, and if capacity expansion is restricted and anti-involution policies continue to advance, the industry's supply-demand relationship will continue to improve.
On the landscape side, as a core component affecting the user experience of new energy vehicles, power batteries have gone through years of market cultivation, and consumers have formed brand awareness of them.
The report points out that brands such as Geely Xingyuan and Leapmotor driving sales growth and brand upgrading by strengthening cooperation with CATL are typical cases.
CATL continues to promote its quality strategy, from increasing brand promotion of flagship products and entering the automotive aftermarket to stepping up global charging infrastructure, continuously deepening its brand moat.
Multiple institutional sources believe that on the basis of maintaining high growth in revenue and sales and continuing to lead in global market share, as negative factors gradually clear and the logic of demand and profitability becomes increasingly clear, the allocation value of CATL as a high-quality investment target is emerging.
The company also rewards shareholders with high-intensity dividends and buybacks. The board of directors has reviewed and approved an A-share share buyback plan of 20 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan, and as of now, approximately 5.1 billion yuan has been repurchased cumulatively.
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