百度：加速 Gen AI 授权的业务转型

Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Buy" rating for Baidu with a target price of $183.00, slightly adjusted from the previous target of $183.20, indicating a potential upside of 65.2% from the current price of $110.75 [3][7]. Core Insights - Baidu's Q1 2024 revenue reached 31.5 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, aligning with Bloomberg consensus. The core non-GAAP net income was 6.6 billion RMB, exceeding expectations due to effective cost control [2][4]. - The management highlighted a continuous increase in AI-related advertising and cloud revenue, accelerating the transformation of search business through generative AI [2][4]. - The online advertising revenue for Q1 was 17 billion RMB, reflecting a 3% year-on-year growth, which was better than market expectations [2][5]. Financial Performance Summary - Revenue projections for FY23E are 134.6 billion RMB, with an expected growth of 8.8%, followed by 138.5 billion RMB in FY24E, a growth of 2.9% [4][6]. - Non-GAAP net profit for FY23E is estimated at 28.7 billion RMB, showing a significant year-on-year increase of 39% [4][6]. - The gross profit margin (GPM) for Q1 2024 was reported at 51.5%, a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year [2][5]. Segment Performance - Non-advertising revenue grew by 6% year-on-year, reaching 6.8 billion RMB, accounting for 29% of Baidu's core revenue [2][4]. - Baidu's cloud revenue for Q1 was 4.7 billion RMB, marking a 12% year-on-year increase, supported by the growth in AI cloud contributions [2][4]. - The management expects cloud revenue growth to recover to 14% year-on-year in 2024E, up from 6% in 2023 [2][4]. Valuation and Estimates - The SOTP valuation for Baidu's core business is estimated at $69.2, based on a 7.0x 2024E non-GAAP PE [7][8]. - The net cash position is valued at $64.6, contributing significantly to the overall valuation [7][8]. - The report anticipates a non-GAAP operating profit margin (OPM) of 24.7% in Q2 2024, remaining stable year-on-year [2][5].