Barclays Capital Reiterates Overweight, $190 on Baidu

Barclays Capital reiterates its rating of Overweight with a $190 target price on Baidu BIDU on solid 2011 results and reasonable guidance into 2012. Barclays Capital says, "After delivering a solid 2011, Baidu provided reasonable 1Q12 guidance and relatively upbeat comment for future growth, especially with the upcoming mobile internet opportunities. With aggressive yet disciplined investment in R&D and network capacity to facilitate growth initiatives, we see necessary near-term margin pressure. We are modeling 53% top line and 48% earnings growth for 2012; and see current valuation of ~30x 2012E as not demanding." BIDU closed at $141.83 a share on Thursday.