Another monster quarter of ridiculous growth. One more catapult launch toward fresh all-time highs. More proof that the dot-com model is scalable in China, with already chunky margins expanding even more.
It's just another day at the office for China's leading search engine.
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) came through with another blowout quarter last night. Revenue soared 78% to $528.4 million, as net income climbed 95% to $252.6 million -- or $0.72 a share. Analysts were only banking on a profit of $0.66 a share on $502.3 million, but you're not even paying attention to me, are you?
You're busy dividing $252.6 million into $528.4 million to arrive at jaw-dropping net margins of 47.8%. There aren't too many companies out there where nearly $0.48 of every dollar generated in revenue is left standing after a litany of expenses and taxes take their licks.
It's good to be Baidu.
Baidu didn't get there by being skimpy. Margins improved despite R&D costs outpacing top-line growth. Baidu is going to take every opportunity to milk the most out of its scalable model, and that doesn't come cheap.
It's not fair to say that advertisers are flocking to Baidu. The number of online marketing customers has increased by just 17% over the past year. However, the typical advertiser is now spending 53% more to generate leads through Baidu than they were a year ago. That's validation, even if a stock hitting another new high doesn't really have the burden of proof anymore.
A Chinese dot-com hitting fresh highs is special, even if it's the niche leader. Social networking site Renren (NYSE: RENN) is trading for far less than its $14 IPO price. Online bookseller Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) is also officially a busted IPO. Video-streaming site Youku.com (NYSE: YOKU) is trading at less than half of its all-time high. Being the top dog in China clearly isn't enough.
Baidu was China's largest search engine when Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) made a serious go in the world's most populous market. It's even bigger now, even with Sohu.com's (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou and Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Bing hoping to take advantage of Big G's partial retreat.
There will come a time when Baidu's insane growth will be unsustainable, but it's not happening in the near term. Baidu is targeting revenue to grow by at least 75% this quarter, landing between $611.1 million to $626.6 million. Without accounting for the search star's historically conservative guidance, analysts were perched on expectations of $567.9 million.
Baidu doesn't provide bottom-line guidance, but there's little reason to doubt that earnings will once again outpace the company's torrid revenue spurt. Spending on opportunities that present incremental revenue streams haven't slowed Baidu in the past.
Thanks for being boring, Baidu.
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