Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Strength Seen in Baidu Inc. (BIDU): Can Its 6.6% Jump Turn into More Strength?

Read MoreHide Full Article

Baidu Inc. (BIDU - Free Report) shares rallied 6.6% in the last trading session to close at $218.23. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 30.8% loss over the past four weeks.

Baidu extended its rally, driven by the latest material revision made by Loop Capital Markets, which upgraded the company’s shares from ‘Hold’ to ‘Buy’. This is primarily attributed to the company’s strengthening presence in the autonomous driving space owing to the growing momentum across its Apollo self-driving project. Also, growth prospects related to its search ads remain noteworthy.

Apart from Loop’s upgrade, Citigroup reiterated ‘Buy’ ratings on Baidu, which is also driving the latter’s rally.  Growth avenues for Baidu remain promising. Further, forced liquidation of Archegos Capital Management which poses an opportunity for share repurchase, remains positive for the company.

Price and Consensus

Price Consensus Chart for BIDU

This web search company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.49 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +19.2%. Revenues are expected to be $4.17 billion, up 31% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Baidu Inc., the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on BIDU going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) - free report >>

Published in