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Baidu Inc. (BIDU) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Baidu Inc. (BIDU - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $168.35, moving +1.03% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.51%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.42%.

Coming into today, shares of the web search company had lost 7.29% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 0.69%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.64%.

BIDU will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 12, 2019. In that report, analysts expect BIDU to post earnings of $1.91 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 16.59%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.86 billion, up 6.58% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for BIDU. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. BIDU is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, BIDU is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.25. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 26.79.

Also, we should mention that BIDU has a PEG ratio of 0.71. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.15 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 188, which puts it in the bottom 27% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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