Dingdong Stock: Cheap For Good Reasons (NYSE:DDL)

Elevator Pitch

I’ve a Maintain funding score for Dingdong (Cayman) Restricted’s (NYSE:DDL) shares.

DDL’s shares have fallen by -89% since its public itemizing in the midst of 2021, and it at present trades at 0.15 occasions consensus ahead subsequent twelve months’ Enterprise Worth-to-Income. However Dingdong’s shares do not warrant a Purchase score, as I feel that its poor inventory value efficiency and low valuation multiples are justified by profitability considerations and delisting dangers. As such, I feel {that a} Maintain score for Dingdong is extra acceptable.

Enterprise Profile

Dingdong calls itself “the main contemporary grocery e-commerce firm in China” within the firm’s media releases.

As indicated in its FY 2021 20-F submitting, DDL earned considerably all of its income (or 98.9% to be particular) from “product gross sales of primarily contemporary groceries, ready meals and different meals merchandise by ‘Dingdong Recent’ APP and mini program” final yr. Membership charges accounted for the remaining 1.1% of Dingdong’s fiscal 2021 prime line.

The corporate was first established in Might 2017, and its shares had been listed on the New York Inventory Alternate since June 2021.

China’s Method In direction of The Pandemic Has Been A Tailwind For DDL

China has chosen to stay with its COVID-zero coverage, in contrast to many different international locations worldwide which have gone forward with stress-free pandemic restrictions. That is typically unfavorable for corporations working in Mainland China, however Dingdong is an outlier in that respect.

The COVID-zero stance adopted by China implies that there’s a larger likelihood of lockdowns occurring when there’s a spike in pandemic instances sometimes. This in flip results in the next proportion of individuals within the nation decreasing their social actions and spending extra time at house, regardless of whether or not precise lockdowns have been initiated. As such, demand for groceries in Mainland China has been remained sturdy regardless of difficult financial circumstances.

Subsequently, it should not come as a shock that Dingdong nonetheless managed to attain sturdy prime line progress within the first half of the yr. As per S&P Capital IQ’s monetary knowledge, DDL’s income expanded by +43.2% YoY and +42.7% YoY to RMB5.4 billion and RMB6.6 billion for Q1 2022 and Q2 2022, respectively. Recall that Q2 2022 represented the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in Mainland China, with even key cities like Shanghai and Beijing experiencing lockdowns in that quarter.

Extra considerably, DDL generated a constructive non-GAAP internet revenue of RMB20.6 billion within the second quarter of 2022 as highlighted in its Q2 monetary outcomes press launch. This was the primary time that Dingdong grew to become worthwhile since its itemizing on the NYSE in the midst of final yr. At its Q2 2022 earnings briefing on August 11, 2022, Dingdong acknowledged that “the milestone revenue we achieved in Q2 was partially a results of the lockdown” in Mainland China.

Dingdong’s Weak Inventory Worth Efficiency Is Justified By A number of Elements

On the floor, there appears to be a big misalignment between DDL’s 1H 2022 monetary outcomes and its share value efficiency post-IPO.

Dingdong’s final completed share value was $2.63 as of October 31, 2022, which is -89% decrease than DDL’s June 2021 IPO value of $23.50. Throughout the identical interval, the S&P 500 has declined by a mere -9%.

Nevertheless, if one delves deeper, there are literally good the reason why DDL’s shares have not carried out properly since its public itemizing.

A key motive is that Dingdong’s constructive earnings for Q2 2022 seems to be an one-off.

DDL famous at its second quarter outcomes briefing that “waiting for Q3, we could anticipate a slight loss.” S&P Capital IQ’s consensus monetary estimates counsel that analysts nonetheless anticipate Dingdong to report a normalized internet lack of -RMB23 million for full-year fiscal 2023. An August 17, 2022 Nikkei Asia article talked about that “about 90% of on-line grocery supply providers are working at a loss.” This statistic serves as a sign of how aggressive the market is and the problem of attaining profitability on this trade.

Within the present surroundings, the market continues to penalize fast-growing corporations that are discovering it powerful to attain profitability. This helps to elucidate why DDL’s consensus ahead subsequent twelve months’ Enterprise Worth-to-Income a number of has derated from 2.4 occasions at its peak in early-November 2021 to 0.15 occasions as of end-October 2022.

One other key motive is that Dingdong faces the chance of being delisted within the US, and it has but to formally file for a Hong Kong itemizing (or some other inventory alternate for that matter) to mitigate delisting dangers.

On Might 10, 2022, DDL filed a 6-Okay submitting disclosing that “was provisionally named by” the SEC “as a Fee-Recognized Issuer” following the discharge of its FY 2021 20-F submitting. Dingdong famous particularly that it might be barred “from being traded on a nationwide inventory alternate or within the over-the-counter buying and selling market in the US”, assuming that it “has been recognized by the SEC for 3 consecutive years” as per the Holding International Corporations Accountable or HFCA Act.

In late-July 2022, Reuters quoted unnamed sources highlighting that DDL “has began preparations on its twin major itemizing in Hong Kong.” Sadly, the corporate hasn’t supplied any official updates on this matter in latest months. If the continued inspection of the audit data of US-listed Chinese language corporations would not go in addition to hoped for, delisting dangers is likely to be within the highlight once more. All else equal, Dingdong has the next threat profile than its different US-listed Chinese language friends which have already secured a secondary or major itemizing on one other international inventory alternate.

Closing Ideas

Dingdong’s shares are rated as a Maintain, as I’ve a combined view of the inventory. On the constructive aspect of issues, DDL has delivered strong prime line progress within the first half of 2022 due to sturdy grocery demand. On the unfavorable aspect of issues, Dingdong does deserve a valuation low cost contemplating delisting dangers and the aggressive nature of the Chinese language on-line grocery market.