BIDU(09888) 国信证券·2024-11-24 05:16Investment Rating - The report maintains an "Outperform" rating for Baidu Group-SW (09888 HK) [4] Core Views - Baidu's total revenue in Q3 2024 was RMB 33 5 billion, down 3% YoY, with adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 5 9 billion, down 19% YoY [2] - Baidu Core revenue remained flat YoY at RMB 26 5 billion, while iQIYI revenue decreased by 10% YoY to RMB 7 2 billion [2] - Baidu Core's advertising revenue declined by 5% YoY, with 20% of search results generated by AI (up from 18% in August) and 70% of MAUs using generative search [2] - AI and large language models (LLMs) contributed incremental revenue to the advertising system, with approximately 20,000 advertisers generating daily ad spend [2] - Baidu's intelligent cloud revenue grew by 11% YoY to RMB 5 billion, with AI contributing 11% of total intelligent cloud revenue [5] - Apollo Go provided approximately 988,000 rides in Q3 2024, a 20% YoY increase, with cumulative rides exceeding 8 million in October [5] Financial Performance - Baidu Group's adjusted net profit margin remained stable at 18%, with Baidu Core's adjusted net profit margin at 21% [2] - Baidu Core's online marketing revenue was RMB 18 8 billion, down 5% YoY, while non-online marketing revenue increased by 12% YoY to RMB 7 7 billion [8] - Baidu Core's adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 5 7 billion, down 18% YoY [8] - Baidu APP's MAUs reached 704 million in September 2024, a 6% YoY increase [16] AI and Cloud Business - AI model inference costs were optimized, with ERNIE processing 1 7 trillion tokens daily, up from 600 million in August [5] - The proportion of unmanned driving operations exceeded 70% nationwide in Q3 2024 and surpassed 80% in October, reaching 100% in Chongqing [5] - Baidu's intelligent cloud business maintained double-digit growth, with AI contributing 11% of total revenue [27] Financial Forecasts - Revenue is expected to grow from RMB 134 6 billion in 2023 to RMB 162 9 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 7 1% [3] - Adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders is forecasted to be RMB 28 6 billion in 2024, RMB 31 billion in 2025, and RMB 33 2 billion in 2026 [30] - The adjusted EPS is projected to increase from RMB 10 19 in 2024 to RMB 11 82 in 2026 [3] Valuation - The report assigns a fair value range of HKD 100 00 to HKD 120 00 for Baidu Group-SW [4] - The current share price is HKD 76 65, with a total market capitalization of HKD 215 02 billion [4]