Baidu Rallies on Earnings Suprise

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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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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About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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