Baidu, Inc. $BIDU Shares Bought by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) by 2,258.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,914 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,162 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Baidu were worth $8,554,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BIDU. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of Baidu by 1.4% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 12,116,750 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,039,132,000 after purchasing an additional 170,414 shares in the last quarter. RPD Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Baidu by 161.6% during the 2nd quarter. RPD Fund Management LLC now owns 1,258,856 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $107,959,000 after buying an additional 777,570 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Baidu by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,037,626 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $95,494,000 after acquiring an additional 25,834 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Baidu in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $80,618,000. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Baidu by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 672,741 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,912,000 after acquiring an additional 16,159 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BIDU. Dbs Bank raised shares of Baidu from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Baidu from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 22nd. Daiwa Capital Markets set a $160.00 target price on Baidu and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Arete Research upgraded Baidu from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $143.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Nomura Securities upgraded Baidu from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $146.11.

Baidu Stock Performance

Shares of Baidu stock opened at $123.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 1.91. Baidu, Inc. has a 1 year low of $74.71 and a 1 year high of $149.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $107.20. The firm has a market cap of $42.77 billion, a PE ratio of 41.14 and a beta of 0.44.

Baidu Company Profile

Baidu, Inc, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Beijing, is a Chinese multinational technology company best known for operating one of China’s leading internet search engines. The company built its business around online search and related advertising services, providing search, content aggregation and targeted ad placements to consumers and marketers across China. Baidu went public on the NASDAQ in 2005 and has since diversified beyond search into a broader technology and AI-focused portfolio.

Core products and services include the Baidu search platform and mobile app, Baidu Maps and Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia), along with digital content initiatives.