RBC cuts estimates

RBC Capital analyst Stephen Ju this morning chopped
his price target and estimates on Baidu while maintaining
his Outperform rating on the Chinese Internet search
engine. Ju reduced his price target on the shares to
$182, from $242. He cut his 2009 EPS estimate to
$5.69, from $6.16. He now sees revenue for the year of
$596 million, down from $684 million. Consensus is
$613 million. Ju writes that his continued positive view
on the stock reflects his view that, despite the dismal
economic backdrop and limited visibility, the number of
Internet users in China should still grow 26%-27% in
2009. “The implicit assumption here is that BIDU
maintains its query and advertiser wallet share, with no
other growth driver aside from the increase in the
volume of clicks coming from the increase of Internet
users,” he writes.