One-glance verdict
Not enough data
Fair value unavailable
Not enough cash-flow history to value this one with our method.
Fundamentals snapshot
Hesai Group
HSAI · NMS · Consumer Cyclical · Auto Parts
Current price
$17.10
52-week range
$14.29 - $30.68
Market cap
$21.50B
Balance sheet
Healthy
6.53x Adequate
Net cash $887.91M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 52.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 7.5% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Reward Trades at 33.5x P/E vs peer median 57.1x (41.3% cheaper).
- Risk Stock trades 346.1% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Hesai Group
Hesai Group makes LiDAR sensors, which act like the "eyes" for self-driving cars, delivery robots, and other automated machines. The company earns money by selling these sensors to automakers for advanced safety features and to tech companies developing autonomous vehicles. This means Hesai's growth is closely tied to how quickly the world adopts self-driving and robotic technology.
How the company got here
Hesai Group was started in 2014 by three founders with backgrounds at top U.S. universities and tech companies like Apple and Western Digital. Initially, the company focused on laser sensors for things like natural gas detection but pivoted to LiDAR (a technology that uses lasers to create a 3D map of the world) in 2016. A key turning point was their ability to offer high-quality LiDAR systems for much less than competitors, which helped them gain a foothold in the growing market for self-driving cars, or robotaxis. By providing reliable products and quick, local customer service in China, they won over major customers like Baidu and Li Auto, setting the stage for their growth.
What it actually does
Think of Hesai as making the "eyes" for smart machines. The company designs and builds advanced sensors called LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. These devices shoot out laser beams and measure how they bounce back to create a constantly updating, detailed 3D map of the surrounding environment. This technology is crucial for self-driving cars to "see" the road, other vehicles, and pedestrians. Beyond cars, Hesai's LiDAR is also used in a variety of robots, like those that deliver packages, sweep streets, or work in warehouses.
LiDAR Business
This is Hesai's main business, making up the vast majority of its sales. The company designs and manufactures different types of LiDAR sensors for automakers and robotics companies. Car companies like Mercedes-Benz, Li Auto, and Xiaomi buy these sensors to build into their vehicles for ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), which are features like automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assist. Another major customer group is companies building fully autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles and various types of robots.
Strategic Growth Initiatives (SGI)
This is a newer and much smaller, but growing, part of Hesai's business that focuses on the future of what it calls "Physical AI." Instead of just selling the LiDAR hardware (the "eyes"), this segment is developing systems that help machines both understand and interact with the physical world. One of their first products is called Kosmo, a device that uses LiDAR and artificial intelligence to easily capture and create high-quality 3D models of real-world spaces. This technology could be used for things like creating virtual reality environments or training robots in simulated spaces.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on expanding beyond just being a hardware supplier to becoming a core provider for what they call "Physical AI." They are betting that as cars and robots become more intelligent, they will need more than just sensors to see; they'll need to understand and act on what they see. This is why they are investing in their Strategic Growth Initiatives, like the Kosmo platform, to create new revenue streams (money a company gets from its business activities) from software and data services. At the same time, they are heavily focused on increasing their manufacturing capacity to meet the surging demand for LiDAR in both cars and a growing number of robotic applications.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$-26.86M
FY2025 Q4
$-27.51M
Revenue
$432.94M
Net income
$62.33M
Diluted EPS
0.43
Operating cash flow
$16.73M
Free cash flow
$-27.51M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$284.57M
Net income
$-14.03M
Diluted EPS
-0.11
Operating cash flow
$8.70M
Free cash flow
$-26.86M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value — vs current price $17.10
We couldn't calculate a fair value right now.
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $887.9M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 6.5x.
Net debt
$-887.91M
Interest coverage
6.53x
Hesai Group's profit covers its interest bill about 6.5 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here and 2 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
HSAI
BASELINE
Hesai Group
Total debt $105.41M Interest coverage 6.53x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $35.63M Interest coverage -621.40x -100% vs HSAI This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with HSAI.
Total debt $102.37M Interest coverage -46.60x -100% vs HSAI This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with HSAI.
What you should know
The case for and against HSAI
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 52.1% last year.
-
Returns 7.5% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Trades at 33.5x P/E vs peer median 57.1x (41.3% cheaper).
Risks
-
Stock trades 346.1% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
33.53x
Forward P/E
18.52x
P/B
2.01x
P/S
6.44x
EV/EBITDA
-36.10x
PEG ratio
0.51x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
40.7%
Operating margin
0.3%
Net margin
14.9%
ROE
7.5%
ROA
-0.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.08x
Current ratio
5.37x
Quick ratio
4.63x
Total debt
$105.41M
Total cash
$993.32M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.16B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
35.4%
EPS TTM
0.51
EPS 5Y CAGR
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Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$-67.42M
Free CF TTM
$-27.51M
FCF margin
-2.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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