Baidu (BIDU 0.62%) stock was battered on Thursday, due in no small part to a pair of price-target cuts from analysts. That left the Chinese tech giant's shares nearly 6% weaker on the day, a far worse performance than the S&P 500 index's 0.9% decline.
Two bearish moves
The two entities behind the Baidu price target reductions were JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
Of the pair, it was Lincoln Kong, the Goldman Sachs analyst, who made the (slightly) deeper cut. He reduced his level to $181 per share from his previous target of $197. He also maintained his buy recommendation on the big tech company.
JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, knocked down its price target on Baidu to $185 per share from $200. Like Kong, the big American bank remains positive on the company, continuing to flag it as an overweight (i.e., buy).
The twin cuts come only days after Baidu World, the company's annual hype event. Baidu used this to showcase a range of artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities, among other items.
Some might feel that the company's playing catch-up with AI, though, as products from other tech titans have seized the spotlight. Notable among these is ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which has received generous investments from U.S. sector powerhouse Microsoft.
It's far from the only techie with AI ambitions
It's still early days for AI, however, so no company or stock should be too harshly judged for the scope and success of their efforts in this sphere. That being said, if Baidu feels the need to lean heavily on the technology, investors will likely want to see it take some kind of lead or engineer a useful innovation that sets it apart from the rest.
