Baidu Inc. (BIDU) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) closed at $135.94 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.6% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.35%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.24%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.56%.
Heading into today, shares of the web search company had gained 14.6% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 6.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.69% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from BIDU as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, BIDU is projected to report earnings of $1.79 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 6.77%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.90 billion, down 1.49% from the year-ago period.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for BIDU should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. BIDU currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
Investors should also note BIDU's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 15.84. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 27.86, so we one might conclude that BIDU is trading at a discount comparatively.
Investors should also note that BIDU has a PEG ratio of 6.99 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Internet - Services was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.62 at yesterday's closing price.
The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 163, which puts it in the bottom 37% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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