Investing

Baidu Rallies on Earnings Suprise

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) is up more than 10% in morning trading following yesterday’s better-than-expected second-quarter results.

China’s Internet search leader reported its quarterly earnings jumped 72% from a year ago to $1.24. Sales totaled $858.8 million, which was up 62.5% year over year.  Wall Street had expected revenue of $853.4 million and profit of $1.11 per share.

Baidu said it expects sales of $983 million to $1 billion this quarter, up from $654 million in the third quarter of 2011. The consensus estimate calls for $992.7 million.

Like rival Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Baidu has been focusing its efforts on mobile advertising and mobile hardware manufacturing. Baidu this year has introduced a series of smartphones, and the company is developing a low-cost smartphone, as well.

Shares are trading near $118.35 and the 52-week trading range is $99.71 to 165.96. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $175.66 before this news. Google is down about 0.6% to $612.13.

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