Baidu Q2 Profit Seen Plunging 61% as Search Ads Crumble
BIDU sits 23% above its 52-week low of $84.82.
Summary
Consensus sees Baidu's Q2 net profit collapsing to 2.82B yuan from 7.32B yuan a year ago, a 61% drop, on revenue of 31.34B yuan versus 32.71B yuan. Fitch downgraded Baidu to A- citing structural decline in search ads and pressure from AI chatbots. Citi expects ad revenue to fall 20% YoY while AI cloud grows 60%, but that's not enough to offset the legacy business. This follows the Kunlunxin IPO plans and DoD listing from earlier this year. Earnings are due Tuesday; the market will focus on whether AI cloud momentum can offset the search ad collapse.
At the time of this announcement, BIDU was trading at $103.95 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $35.5B. The 52-week trading range was $84.82 to $165.30. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: Dow Jones Newswires.