What happened
Shares of iQiyi (IQ -2.62%) jumped as much as 12.6% higher on Wednesday. As of 3:10 p.m. EDT, the online-video specialist's gains had cooled down to 11.8%. The move stems from a bullish analyst note.
So what
The positive analyst coverage comes from CITIC Securities, the investment-banking arm of Chinese megabank CITIC Group. The firm just started coverage of iQiyi with a buy rating and a price target of $28.33 per share. For the record, that's 12% above current prices and a whopping 23% above Tuesday's closing price.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
In other iQiyi news today, South China Morning Post published a video interview with CEO Tim Gong Yu where he shrugged off comparisons to Western counterpart -- and business partner -- Netflix. He'd prefer to see his company as the next Walt Disney Company with a worldwide entertainment empire spanning many sectors and industries. Yu hopes to achieve this audacious goal within the next 20 to 30 years using lessons learned from Disney's 70-year trek to the same goal to speed up iQiyi's progress.
At this point, iQiyi shares have soared 67% higher since spinning off from parent company Baidu just two months ago. It's easy to see why analysts and investors are getting excited about the company's bold vision and ambitious goals.
