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Baidu’s revenue forecast misses estimates, shares fall

“Baidu is redefining the search box by building an ecosystem to connect people with services and drive closed loop transactions”. We are delighted by the progress we have achieved and are confident that these investments will generate long term shareholder value.

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Apart from the above factors, we are also keen to get an update on Baidu’s growth strategies in the online to offline (O2O) space, and in several key verticals such as education, financial services and healthcare. At the same time, it hopes to make up for the shrinking revenues from mobile advertising. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share.

Baidu CEO, Robin Li stated in the press-release: “Mobile’s tremendous momentum continued this quarter, with mobile contributing 50% of total revenue…” The forecasted range by the management misses the analysts’ expectations of $3.03 billion revenue in the third quarter.

The company reported Online marketing revenue of $2.62 billion, 37.1% YoY growth.

The company is expected to report gross profit of $1.613 billion. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to iQiyi’s increased content costs. That would be an increase of between 34.4% and 37.4% year over year. The increase was primarily due to an increase in the number of research and development personnel.

Operating profit was RMB3.470 billion ($559.6 million), representing a 2.5% decrease from the corresponding period in 2014. That was higher compared to 3 per cent in the corresponding period past year. Basic and diluted earnings per ADS for the second quarter of 2015 amounted to RMB10.22 ($1.65) and RMB10.19 ($1.64), respectively.

Net income attributable to Baidu rose 3.2 percent to 3.66 billion yuan. Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2015 were RMB923.1 million ($148.9 million).

Another area which would be of interest to investors is the company’s expenses. This forecast reflects Baidu’s current and preliminary view, which is subject to change.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) traded down 4.16% on Monday, hitting $197.68. Baidu has a 52 week low of $178.81 and a 52 week high of $251.99. The 50-day moving average is $200.81 and the 200 day moving average is recorded at $207.46.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Nomura in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Market Beat Ratings reports. Analysts at Vetr downgraded shares of Baidu from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $225.89 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday.

Shares of Baidu, Inc. The stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $240.48.

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“We view Baidu’s investment in O2O as both defensive and reactive to the change of smartphone user behaviour, and necessary for Baidu to provide a comprehensive local search function”.

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