百度财报令人失望，股价遭重挫
Baidu shares hit as results disappoint（307words）

By Charles Clover in Beijing

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Shares in China’s Nasdaq-listed search engine Baidu fell 8 per cent on Monday after it missed key targets in its quarterly earnings and amid renewed turmoil in China’s domestic stock markets.

The Chinese internet giant, which has a stake in Uber, has been under scrutiny by investors as the apps-driven mobile internet threatens the role of traditional search engines. This month Baidu unveiled a bold strategy to invest $3.2bn in “online to offline” services where smartphones are used to hail taxis, buy movie tickets and shop.

However, analysts and traders on Monday were focusing on the bottom line and Baidu’s quarterly numbers disappointed: the company forecast current-quarter revenue would rise 34.4 to 37.4 per cent to a range of Rmb18.17bn-Rmb18.58bn ($2.9bn-$3bn), falling short of analysts’ average estimate of Rmb18.79bn, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.

Operating profit in the second quarter came in at Rmb3.4bn, a 2.5 per cent decrease from the same period in 2014. Net income attributable to Baidu in the second quarter was Rmb3.6bn, a 3.3 per cent increase from the year-earlier period.

Baidu shares fell to $197 on Monday in New York. They hit their lowest point of the year, of $184, on July 8.

Selling pressure was exacerbated by overall jitters about China’s stock markets, which collapsed earlier this month but had been improving for the past three weeks, until renewed selling on Monday sent the Shanghai Composite index down 8.5 per cent — its worst one-day fall in eight years.

Shares in other US-listed Chinese companies have been hit as well because market turmoil in mainland A shares has dented confidence more broadly.

Alibaba, the New York-traded Chinese ecommerce giant, hit a post-September 2014 listing low on July 8 of $77, though it had recovered to $81 as of Monday.