Light Guidance, Higher Expenses Cool Enthusiasm for Baidu

Excluding share-based compensation expenses, diluted earnings per ADS totaled $1.22.

Traffic acquisition costs rose to 13.5% of total revenues, or $277.7 million, from 12.4% in the year-ago first quarter and 13.4% in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Online marketing revenues for the first quarter totaled $2.019 billion, a 33.5% increase from the same period in 2014. Baidu had about 524,000 active online marketing customers in the first quarter of 2015, a 17.5% increase from the same period in 2014 and flat from the fourth quarter of 2014. Revenue per online marketing customer for the first quarter was approximately $3,839, a 13.9% increase from the same period in 2014 and a 9.8% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.

Baidu currently expects to generate total revenues in a range of $2.64 billion $2.7 billion for the second quarter of 2015, representing a 36.5% to 39.7% year-over-year increase.

The current consensus estimates call for second-quarter revenues of $2.69 billion and earnings per ADS of $1.82. For the full year, analysts are looking for earnings per ADS of $7.23 and revenues of $11 billion.

R&D expenses rose 79% year over year in the quarter to $368.8 million, and SG&A expenses rose 47% to $477 million. The SG&A spending hike was attributed to increased promotional spending for mobile products and services. R&D expenses rose as Baidu added staff.

Mobile advertising presents the same issues in China that it does in the United States and elsewhere: advertisers want to be on mobile devices but pay lower rates compared with desktop advertising. Until the mobile numbers get really big, the weight will fall on revenues and profits.

Baidu’s ADSs traded down about 3.6% in Wednesday’s after-hours session at $211.15, after closing the regular session at $219.00. The 52-week range is $148.44 to $251.99, and the consensus price target is around $249.60 before the report.

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