UPDATE: Maxim Group Reiterates Baidu at Sell on Weak Margins

Maxim Group reiterated its Sell rating and $80.00 price target on Baidu

following Q4 results. Maxim Group commented, "During the quarter, BIDU was able to grow the number of advertisers by 30.5% y/y (4.1% q/q) at the expense of revenue per advertiser, which grew 7.6% y/y but declined 3.1% q/q, the slowest growth ever in BIDU's reporting history. … Management also expects continued weak PC search market growth. This will likely result in BIDU increasingly relying on mobile search, which may have grown to a significant share of BIDU's search traffic but have not generated material revenue for BIDU to break out a separate line in income statement." Baidu closed at $107.20 on Monday.