On May 22, Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang lowered the price target for Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) to $120 from $130 but maintained a Buy rating.

This comes after Baidu recently revealed its first-quarter 2025 earnings, which exceeded forecasts with solid earnings and revenue.Baidu Price Target Lowered as AI Monetization Uncertainty Weighs

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A notable achievement was the company's AI Cloud, which grew 42% year-over-year, accounting for roughly 26% of the company's core revenue, and achieved margins higher than those of its main rivals. Additionally, Baidu's GenAI search technology is being adopted faster than expected. While this tech has tremendous long-term potential, the analyst pointed out that it is currently only partially monetized and still in the trial-and-error stage.

Since the timing and effectiveness of monetization for Baidu's AI search are uncertain, Benchmark has updated its estimate for the company's core advertising revenue for 2025. Instead of predicting flat growth, the firm now expects an 8% year-over-year decline.

While we acknowledge the potential of BIDU to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk.  If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than BIDU and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

Read More: 10 Best Magic Formula Stocks for 2025 and 10 Best Retirement Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds

Disclosure: None.

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