Citi: Very busy raising the target price to HK$555.9 (01768) to maintain a “buy” rating

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Citibank released a research report saying that Ming Ming was very busy (01768) with strong performance in the first half of the year, maintaining its “buy” rating. The target price was raised by 26.5% from HK$439.6 to HK$555.9. The management raised the 2026 guidelines and the enthusiasm of franchisees to open stores, fully demonstrating the advantages of its “value retail” model. Citi believes this is the most attractive theme in the Chinese consumer industry from 2026 to 2027.

The bank pointed out that gross margin expansion of 2.2 percentage points in the first half of the year was mainly driven by scale expansion and product/category optimization, and established a win-win relationship with restaurant brands (including speeding up payments to suppliers and a 2-day year-on-year decrease in payable days), rather than excessive monetization by increasing average sales prices or actively expanding its own brand business. Operating cash flow for the first half of the year increased 1.8 times year-on-year, better than expected, supporting potential new cash return plans (including dividends) for the second half of the year.