After seeing shares slump because of increased competition and possible slowing growth, the market regained confidence in Chinese search giant Baidu (BIDU 0.72%) in 2013.
So as it heads into its final quarterly report of fiscal 2013, what are the key numbers and storylines that investors must watch?
Baidu by the numbers
Judging by analysts' expectations for its coming report, it looks as if many of the past themes driving Baidu's financial performance should remain firmly in place.
On the sales side of things, Baidu is expected to continue to see more of the outsized growth for which it's become famous. However, as we've seen persistently with search companies in the past few years, this robust sales growth might not make its way to the bottom line.
However, as time has also shown, Baidu's relative dominance of the Chinese search market has more or less remained in place, which is the primary reason for investing in Baidu for the long term. Although it's certainly not as cheap as it was some months ago, Baidu's growth runway still remains nothing short of astounding.
In the following video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner looks at Baidu's coming report and the key numbers and storylines that investors need to watch.
