Baidu Stock Surges 11% as Analysts Boost Price Targets

Baidu stock surged 11% on Wednesday after analyst Thomas Chong at Jefferies raised his price target to $157 per ADR, citing the company's rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and its success in partnering with large companies. This followed a recommendation upgrade from Arete analyst Richard Kramer, who moved his rating from sell to buy with a price target of $143 per ADR.

Baidu Inc. (BIDU) shares surged by 11% on Wednesday, following a significant upgrade in price targets by analyst Thomas Chong at Jefferies and a recommendation change by Arete analyst Richard Kramer. The positive sentiment was driven by the company's rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and its successful partnerships with major companies.

Thomas Chong at Jefferies raised his price target for Baidu's American Depository Receipts (ADRs) to $157, citing the company's AI initiatives and strategic partnerships. Richard Kramer at Arete Research also upgraded his rating from 'Sell' to 'Buy' with a price target of $143 per ADR, noting strong fundamentals and growth prospects in cloud computing and AI Baidu Stock Rises To 2-Year High In Hong Kong As Investors Bet On AI Prowess — Retail Mood Flips To ‘Bullish’^[1].

The stock rally comes amid a broader bullish sentiment towards Baidu, with its Hong Kong-listed shares hitting a two-year high. The company's second-quarter results, released in late August, showed that its non-online marketing revenue increased by 34% year-over-year to 10 billion yuan ($1.40 billion), driven by its AI initiatives Baidu Stock Rises To 2-Year High In Hong Kong As Investors Bet On AI Prowess — Retail Mood Flips To ‘Bullish’^[1].

Baidu's AI prowess has been further highlighted by its latest AI model, Ernie X1.1, which was unveiled at its deep learning developer conference, Wave Summit 2025. The model shows significant advancements in factuality, instruction following, and agentic capabilities, outperforming DeepSeek R1-0528 in multiple benchmarks Baidu shares surge on AI optimism^[2].

Additionally, Baidu has been leveraging in-house chips to train its AI models, a move that is partly displacing Nvidia, which has been at the center of geopolitical tensions between China and the United States Baidu shares surge on AI optimism^[2].

These developments have contributed to a positive retail sentiment towards Baidu, with Stocktwits reporting a flip from 'bearish' to 'bullish' by early Wednesday Baidu Stock Rises To 2-Year High In Hong Kong As Investors Bet On AI Prowess — Retail Mood Flips To ‘Bullish’^[1].