5 Best International Stocks In 2021

4. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 59

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is a China-based multinational company and it ranks fourth on the list of 10 best international stocks in 2021. The company markets internet-related services and artificial intelligence products. The company also operates in Japan, the USA, Thailand, Brazil, Egypt, and Indonesia.

In 2020, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) agreed to purchase the live streaming business of JOYY Inc. (NASDAQ: YY) for $3.6 billion. This purchase will provide YY Live access to Baidu’s vast user base.

On June 1st, Mizuho analyst James Lee maintained a Buy rating on Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) with a $350 per share price target. Lee believes that Baidu’s cloud solutions will work in a variety of industries.

The company has a market cap of $53.32 billion. In the second quarter of 2021, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) reported an EPS of $2.38, beating estimates by $0.32. The company’s second-quarter revenue came in at $4.84 billion, beating estimates by $51.58 million. 

Horos Asset Management mentioned Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) in its Q1 2021 investor letter:

“We have also fully exited our stake in Baidu, following their outstanding performance during the period and their lower relative upside potential compared to other investment alternatives, which we will discuss below.

The Chinese technology platform company Baidu has also been held in the portfolios managed by Alejandro, Miguel, and myself for several years. During this period, we have seen very high volatility in its share price, which we have taken advantage of to make significant rebalancing moves in our position (in fact, we even sold our entire position once, when we thought the stock’s upside potential was exhausted). After several years of instability, market sentiment turned very positive, putting an end to the historical advertising problems in the healthcare sector, the divestments in O2O (Online-to-Offline) businesses that continued to weigh on the company’s margins, the IPO of part of the iQiyi streaming business (which hid Baidu’s underlying cash generation capacity) and the tough competition from other industry giants such as Tencent and Alibaba, as well as the entry of new players with disruptive business models (ByteDance). At the same time, the company’s recent commitment to electric vehicles contributed even more to this change of narrative. Baidu’s share price rose almost fourfold from the March 2020 lows to all-time highs and reached a valuation where the margin of safety, in our view, was too narrow.”