Baidu.com (BIDU-Q)

 Alibaba and Baidu are the only safe Chinese stocks, one you can stick with if the economy falters. Trades at only 10x 2025 PE

Yesterday, China did a smart thing by cutting their federal funds rate by 50 basis points. This is gigantic and has impact, by making their economy--and stocks--stronger. Also, he suggests they reign in their real estate industry. China has to do something to revive its economy. Also, both US candidates in this election year will bash China. Given all this, he's changed his mind about Chinese stocks and recommends Baidu, Alibaba, Pinduoduo and JD.com. They are very cheap and are real businesses. Also, they are recognized internationally. No, he won't buy them, because he doesn't trade, but if he did trade, he would.

Look past the headline noise (of Biden criticizing the Chinese economy) and instead focus on the fundamentals. China's government need to stimulate their economy. The price is very cheap, though not as cheap as BABA.

He avoids Chinese companies--heard too many horror stories. Google is growing faster than Baidu, and he prefers Google if you want an internet stock.

Baidu reported earnings recently and missed sending the stock down. He does not believe tech talk as having a real revenue story. As such, the valuation does not make too much sense to him. The trade issues with China have made all these companies cheap, so if you are a trader this could be a good way to go. He would prefer Tencent or Alibaba instead.

The law of large numbers means a company of this size and valuation will struggle to double in value. There are very high expectations of future earnings growth and valuations are too expensive. This is a better trade than a buy and hold. (Analysts’ price target is $290 )

This is a well-placed company, the Google of China. Search will continue to grow. Baidu has had some hiccups along the way but they are doing well now. They have heavy investment in artificial intelligence which he thinks will be valuable. He is out of Chinese technology companies at this point because of valuation. He thinks these stocks are a little frothy at the moment. If he had to rank potential investments in Chinese technology, he would place Tencent Holdings at the top. Baidu might be second, followed closely by Alibaba.

It has been a big winner but it has not grown as quickly as Google over the same timeframe. He thinks the difference is that the founders brought in a CEO as they grew in Google’s case. Finally last year the founder of BIDU-Q stepped aside but people think it was a little late. They are being outrun by TCEHY-5.

She likes this company. It is basically the Yahoo of China. Until very recently, the last couple of quarters, they were really struggling to figure out a new business model, because search was becoming commoditized. What they’ve been doing is using AI to develop a business model, to figure out the next phase of monetization. It looks interesting. It is fairly valued, so she would be a bit cautious.