Baidu (BIDU) Q2 Earnings Drop In Hours—Here’s the Make-or-Break Moment

Baidu’s about to face the music—will its Q2 earnings hit the high notes or flatline?

The AI Play vs. Reality Check

All eyes are on whether Baidu’s heavy AI bets finally moved the needle—or if it’s another ‘future potential’ shrug from Wall Street.

Ad Revenue: The Elephant in the Room

With China’s economic headwinds, analysts are braced for ad revenue cuts. The real question: Did cloud and AI pick up the slack?

Cynical Finance Bonus

‘Guidance’ will likely be a masterclass in optimistic vagueness—because nothing says ‘confidence’ like refusing to give hard numbers.

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Meanwhile, analysts expect revenues of $4.57 billion, reflecting a 2.6% year-over-year decrease, according to data from the TipRanks Forecast page. Importantly, Baidu has missed the consensus EPS estimates just once in the last nine quarters.

Recent News Ahead of Q2

On August 4, Baidu announced a partnership with U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft (LYFT) to bring its autonomous taxis to Europe, marking a step in its global push into driverless mobility. The companies plan to launch robotaxis in the U.K. and Germany starting in 2026, with ambitions to expand to “thousands” of vehicles across Europe in the following years.

In July, Uber (UBER) and Baidu joined hands to deploy thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform. Under this multi-year partnership, initial rollouts are expected in global markets outside the U.S. and mainland China.

Analyst’s Take Ahead of Q2 Results

Heading into Q2 FY25 earnings, Benchmark’s Top analyst Fawne Jiang reiterated a Buy rating on Baidu with a $120 price target. She expects Baidu Core advertising to face continued pressure from market share challenges and the faster rollout of GenAI-generated content in search results. Jiang cut Q2 and full-year Core ad growth forecasts to -16% and -13% year-over-year, noting that a near-term recovery in search and advertising is uncertain.

On the positive side, Jiang highlighted Baidu’s progress in autonomous driving, citing its recent partnership with Uber to deploy Apollo Go globally. She said this is an early but key step that could help lift the stock price.

Options Traders Anticipate a Minor Move

Using TipRanks’ Options tool, we can see what options traders are expecting from the stock immediately after its earnings report. The expected earnings MOVE is determined by calculating the at-the-money straddle of the options closest to expiration after the earnings announcement. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry; the Options tool does this for you.

Indeed, it currently says that options traders are expecting a 5.71% move in either direction.    

Is BIDU Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Wall Street is cautiously optimistic on Baidu stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on nine Buys and five Holds. The average BIDU stock price target of $102.52 indicates about 13.75% upside potential from current levels.