Baidu forecasts quarterly earnings below estimates, stocks fall

(Reuters) – The Chinese search engine Baidu Inc on Thursday reported lower-than-expected results last year and forecasts quarterly revenues below estimates, sending the shares down 8% in extended trading.

Revenue from online marketing service business, a major contributor to total sales, rose nearly 3% to 17.66 billion yuan (2.57 billion yuan) but lost estimates of $ 2.66 billion, according to research firm FactSet.

"Despite the government's policy of improving market conditions for small and medium-sized businesses, we expect short-term online marketing to meet a challenging environment," says CFO Herman Yu.

Baidu forecasts second quarter sales of $ 25.1 billion yuan to 26.6 billion yuan, while analysts had expected 2930 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company reported a net loss due to shareholders of 327 million yuan ($ 47.51 million) in the first quarter ended March 31 compared to net income of 6.69 billion yuan the previous year

Excluding items, the company achieved 2.77 yuan per US deposit, which does not exceed the 2.89 yuan per ADS estimate.

Total revenue increased By 15.4% to 2412 billion yuan ($ 3.50 billion), average analysts expected the company to report revenue of $ 24.16 billion. uan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting of Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing Anil D & 39; Silva)