The brief public life of Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) has already been a wild one. The stock went public at $27 and soared into the triple digits on its first trading day. Since then, gravity has sent the stock back into the double digits, where daily gyrations seem to always be on the menu.
Wednesday night was no exception. The stock traded 13% lower after what would have been healthy results if not for the market's lofty expectations. Revenues surged 174% higher. Momentum is certainly in place, as the company expects revenue growth to accelerate after soaring 215% to 227% higher in the current quarter.
Baidu accomplished this growth with a 148% spike in advertisers. That means the average sponsor is spending more these days on China's largest website.
The company is profitable, though 10% in net margins pales in comparison with the loftier production of other Chinese stocks, like Rule Breakers recommendations NetEase.com (NASDAQ:NTES) and Shanda Interactive (NASDAQ:SNDA).
However, Baidu's presence as China's leading search engine -- with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) a distant second -- is significant. Stateside behemoths like Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are jockeying for position, while Baidu.com is already where it needs to be. Baidu just needs time for China's economy to improve to the point at which sponsors are willing to pay more for the region's eyeballs.
Yes, it's kind of surprising to see such amazing trading volatility in a company that will take years to vindicate either the longs or the shorts. I bought into the company earlier this month knowing that this was supposed to be a long-term position. I will consume every quarterly report, yet I know that this is the kind of company that will find its success measured in years. Not quarters. Not months. Not the occasional wild trading day.
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a huge fan of the online search engine space, and he does own shares of Baidu.com. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
