【Haitong International: Reduce Baidu's Target Price to $102 with Conservative Outlook】Jin Ten Data, December 4th: Haitong International released a report stating that it maintains its forecast for Baidu (BIDU.O) core advertising for the fourth fiscal quarter, keeping the previously estimated annual growth rate at -9.5%, and the annual growth rate for cloud services unchanged at 13%. Considering Baidu's recent organizational adjustments, the shift in revenue mix to low-profit businesses, and investments related to LLM, the forecast for the fourth fiscal quarter Non-GAAP core operating profit margin has been further lowered from 21% to 19%. Therefore, the forecasts for core revenue and Non-GAAP core operating profit for the 2024 fiscal year are 102.7 billion RMB and 24.3 billion RMB, respectively, corresponding to a profit margin of 24%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5 percentage points. Haitong International expects that Baidu's core advertising business will still be under pressure in the first quarter of next year, but is expected to improve quarter by quarter, driven by macroeconomic recovery and increased advertising demand from LLM. The firm states that Baidu's outlook is conservative, lowering the target price from $108 to $102, while maintaining an "outperform the market" rating. (Source: Jin Ten Data)