Baidu (BIDU) Another Solid Report, with Raised Guidance

Baidu (BIDU) reported tonight and while they only beat estimates for the quarter by 2 cents (47c v 45c), revenue guidance for next quarter was pushed up to the $493 to $504M range, above the $484M consensus which seems to be enough to keep investors happy.  The stock is doing little after hours.  I would have expected the bar to be higher since the stock has rallied 50%+already in 2011, but at this point anything Chinese internet is completely teflon.  With that said, revenue was up 88% year over year - very impressive.

Full report here

• For the first quarter, Baidu reported net income of $163.5 million, or 47 cents per American Depository Share. This compared with $70.4 million or $2.10 per share before a 10-for-1 stock split a year ago.
• Total revenue for the first quarter came in at $372 million, above its own forecast of $360.6 million to $371.2 million and up roughly 88 percent from a year ago. Analysts estimates called for revenue of $367.3 million. 

• Online marketing revenues for the first quarter of 2011 were RMB2.435 billion ($371.8 million), representing an 88.2% increase from the corresponding period in 2010. 
• Baidu had approximately 274,000 active online marketing customers in the first quarter of 2011, representing a 24.0% increase from the corresponding period in 2010 and a 0.7% decrease from the previous quarter. 
• Revenue per online marketing customer for the first quarter was approximately RMB8,900 ($1,359), a 50.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2010 and flat compared to the previous quarter.
• Traffic acquisition cost (TAC) as a component of cost of revenues was RMB198.6 million ($30.3 million), representing 8.2% of total revenues, as compared to 13.2% in the corresponding period in 2010 and 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010. 

TAC costs are widely watched and remain at a substantially lower level than a year ago, which is very good.

[Feb 1, 2011: Baidu Pleases Street with Slight Beat on Earnings, Raises Guidance and Talks Social Networking]
[Nov 21, 2010: BW - How Baidu Won China]
[Oct 22, 2010: Baidu Continues to Execute]
[Jul 22, 2010: Baidu With Another Strong Quarter of Growth, Raises Guidance]
[Jan 13, 2010: Baidu Soars on Potential Pullout of Google in China]
[Oct 27, 2009: Baidu Stains the Sheets with Guidance] 
[Jul 24, 2009: Baidu Blows the Door Off; Phoenix (Nest) Rising]
[Apr 27, 2009: Baidu.com Beats & Provides Nice Top Line Guidance]
[Dec 11, 2008: Baidu.com - Lowers Guidance, Stock is Up]
[Nov 18, 2008: Not a Good Week for Chinese Dot Coms]
[Oct 24, 2008: Baidu.com Crunched on China Economic Fears]
[Jul 23, 2008: Baidu.com, Amazon.com - Party Like It's 1999?]

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