Baidu Inc.: 4Q Earnings Snapshot

BEIJING (AP) _ Baidu Inc. (BIDU) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter net income of $303 million.

The Beijing-based company said it had net income of 86 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and non-recurring costs, came to $1.92 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.69 per share.

The web search company posted revenue of $3.96 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.82 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $4.01 billion, or $11.35 per share. Revenue was reported as $14.88 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Baidu Inc. said it expects revenue in the range of $3.42 billion to $3.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $3.71 billion.

Baidu Inc. shares have risen slightly more than 8 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $171.81, a fall of 30 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BIDU at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BIDU