Baidu reports stronger-than-forecast earnings

By Steve Goldstein

Chinese internet search provider Baidu on Thursday reported earnings ahead of estimates, helped by demand for its AI cloud business.

Baidu (BIDU) said net income fell 6% to 5.45 billion renminbi. Excluding one-time items, earnings would have gained 24% to 19.91 renminbi per share, or $2.76 per U.S.-listed share, according to a company-provided currency translation.

Revenue rose 1% to 31.5 billion renminbi ($4.37 billion), as a 3% rise from what it calls Baidu core, which includes its search engine and the Ernie AI service, was offset by a 5% decline from its iQIYI streaming video service. Within Baidu Core, online marketing revenue rose 3% and non-online marketing revenue rose 6%.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $2.21 per share on sales of $4.34 billion.

Baidu rose 2% in premarket trade, while the stock has declined by 7% this year.

Baidu's Chief Financial Officer Rong Luo said the company would focus on optimizing its operations to support growing its AI-enabled businesses while maintaining a "healthy" non-GAAP operating margin, which reached 23.5% in the quarter.

Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, provided about 826,000 rides in the first quarter of 2024, up 25% year over year, the company said.

-Steve Goldstein

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05-16-24 0558ET

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