Baidu Earnings, Not As Advertised

Baidu had previously given guidance for the second quarter expecting revenue to be in the range of $2.93 billion to $3.0 billion.

The company gave guidance for the third quarter; Baidu expects $2.93 billion to $3.00 billion in revenue.

Mobile search monthly active users (MAUs) were 629 million for the month of June 2015, an increase of 24% year over year. Mobile maps MAUs were 304 million for the month of June 2015, an increase of 48%.

Traffic acquisition cost was $340.6 million, representing 12.7% of total revenues, flat from the same period in 2014.

Jennifer Li, CFO of Baidu, said:

We delivered solid financial results in the second quarter of 2015, with our core search business exhibiting strong growth and attractive profitability. With the solid base of our core search business, coupled with upward momentum of our O2O [online-to-offline] e-commerce initiatives, we continue to invest decisively in the ‘Next Baidu’. We are delighted by the progress we have achieved and are confident that these investments will generate long term shareholder value. Going forward, we will report the financial impact of the new initiatives, namely O2O & Other[2] and iQiyi.

Robin Li, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, said:

As we continue to connect people with services and enable closed loop transactions, we are creating a transactional business model as Baidu grows and evolves in the age of mobile.

At the end of the second quarter, the company had $12.09 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Deutsche Bank and Brean Capital both downgraded Baidu to Hold from Buy. Baidu is closer to 52-week lows after this earnings report.

Baidu ADSes closed Monday down 4.2% at $197.68 on a 52-week trading range of $178.81 to $251.99. On Tuesday morning, Baidu traded down 14.2% at $171.02.