Baidu Q3 Profits Jump 42% but Outlook Soft

Baidu Inc., which runs China’s leading Internet search engine, said Monday that its third-quarter profit jumped 42 percent as revenue from online marketing services climbed.

American Depositary Shares of Baidu, which also predicted fourth-quarter revenue below analyst estimates, fell $55.27, or 12.8 percent, in after-hours trading, after finishing regular trading down $2.34 at $432.97.

The company earned 492.9 million yuan ($72.2 million), or 14.14 yuan ($2.07) per share. When excluding one-time items, Baidu’s profit totaled 14.75 yuan ($2.16) per share.

In the year-ago quarter, Baidu earned 347.9 million yuan, or 10 yuan per share.

Revenue rose 39 percent to yuan 1.28 billion ($187.3 million). Revenue from online marketing services climbed 39 percent to 1.28 billion yuan ($187.2 million).

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who often exclude one-time items from their estimates, expected $1.81 per share on $187.8 million in revenue.

The number of active online marketing customers rose to 216,000, up 11 percent from a year earlier, Baidu said. It said revenue per online marketing customer rose nearly 26 percent to 5,900 yuan ($864).

The company gave outlook for revenue of 1.19 billion yuan ($174 million) to 1.23 billion yuan ($180 million) in the fourth quarter, which would be growth of 32 percent to 36 percent year over year. Baidu expects a temporary hit to revenue due to its discontinuation of “Online Marketing Classic Edition”

Analysts were expecting $202.9 million in revenue.

10/26/2009 7:51 PM SAN FRANCISCO (AP)