Shares of $BIDU Clown Slapped in the After-Hours on Stark Earnings Warning

This is a horrific earnings shortfall, especially for a company who’ve been granted supreme control over the Chinese internets. Revenue guidance is coming down in the magnitude of 10% and so are the shares in after-hours trading.

The stock is off $13 to the $150 area.

Co lowers its Q2 revs guidance to $2.807-2.823 bln, from $3.119-3.192 bln ($3.072 bln Capital IQ Consensus)

The revenue guidance revision was mainly attributable to the following factors:

First, regulatory authorities continue to review the online marketing practices of medical, pharmaceutical, healthcare and other similar businesses, and have also implemented stricter advertising regulations for medical organizations. The review is being rolled out with varied timing with different levels of implementation and interpretation across geographies. While the review is underway, the Company has observed a reduction or delay in spend from a significant portion of medical customers. These customers may be in the process of receiving instruction from regulatory authorities, gathering and submitting required documentation and adjusting their practices to comply with new regulations.

Second, the Company has reduced the number of sponsored links across the platform. This measure impacts revenue over the short term but enhances user experience and will drive benefit to Baidu over the long term.

The company will host a conference call tonight at 7:30pm.

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