For the second quarter, Baidu predicted year-over-year sales growth for its core segment of between 20% and 33%.
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Baidu ‘s first-quarter results surged past expectations for adjusted earnings and sales, but shares of the Chinese search-engine and artificial-intelligence software firm only edged higher.
Baidu reported adjusted earnings per share of 12.38 yuan (US$1.93), beating estimates for 10.51 yuan, according to FactSet. Total revenues of 28.1 billion yuan also beat estimates of 27.4 billion yuan, but Baidu stock (ticker: BIDU) ticked only 0.2% higher in Tuesday trading.
Sales in Baidu’s core segment jumped 37% year over year to 20.5 billion yuan, with online marketing revenue driving 16.3 billion yuan of that. Nonmarketing revenue was 4.2 billion. Sales in the iQIYI video segment were up 4% year over year to 8 billion yuan.
“We are delighted to bring innovation across many sectors, including marketing cloud, enterprise cloud, smart transportation, autonomous driving, smart assistant and AI chip, through our decade-long investment in AI,” CEO Robin Li said in a news release.
The company said its autonomous-driving project Apollo has accumulated 6.2 million miles of Level 4 autonomous driving—which is full autonomy in limited settings. Apollo Go, which is an autonomous ride-hailing service, is available in the 2022 Winter Olympics site Shougang Park.
The company’s outlook for the second quarter calls for revenue of between 29.7 billion yuan and 32.5 billion yuan. That includes growth in sales for the Baidu core segment of between 20% and 33% year over year.
Citi Research analyst Alicia Yap wrote Tuesday morning that the growth in Baidu’s core operation suggests robust momentum for cloud revenues. She said the guidance is solid, adding that the growth for the core segment is “likely benefiting from continued secular recovery of ad revs as well as growth momentum from cloud revs and other services.”
Baidu stock was among the names that sold off after the forced liquidation of Archegos Capital Management. Soros Fund Management bought shares of some of those companies in the first quarter, according to regulatory filings.
Write to Connor Smith at [email protected]
