Baidu shares take a hit after 3Q results

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Baidu.com shares tumble despite strong 3rd-quarter results amid economic worries

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S.-traded shares of Baidu.com Inc. declined Thursday after China's leading search engine posted strong third-quarter results but sparked investor worries about how it will fare in the economic downturn.

The company posted a 91 percent jump in its quarterly earnings, boosted by rapid growth in online marketing revenue. The profit was above Wall Street's expectations, and the company's revenue outlook was also strong.

Citi Investment Research analyst Jason Brueschke expects a strong finish to the year for the Beijing-based company. He rates the stock "Buy."

"Baidu (revenues) are wholly domestic and derived from an extremely broad customer base, offering investors a highly diversified and hence less risky (revenue) stream," he wrote in a note to investors.

That said, he added Baidu is a pure advertising company, and its revenue is correlated with the health of the underlying Chinese economy -- which is slowing.

Baidu's American Depositary Shares fell $36.55, or 14.7 percent, to $212.54. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $198 and $429.19.

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I was puzzed why it tumbled so much despiet its strong earnig release