TLDR
- Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchased 97,597 shares of Baidu (BIDU) for $12.21 million following a 5.7% post-earnings stock decline
- Baidu reported Q4 results that topped profit and revenue expectations, yet revenue fell 4% year-over-year due to advertising sector challenges
- The investment firm sold 25,175 shares of BWX Technologies (BWXT) worth $5.22 million, continuing recent reduction of this position
- ARK also trimmed holdings in PagerDuty (PD), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM), Iridium (IRDM), Salesforce (CRM), and Butterfly Network (BFLY)
- Baidu’s AI business lines generated $1.61 billion in Q4, representing 43% of total quarterly revenue
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest made a substantial move on Thursday, February 26, purchasing shares of Chinese tech powerhouse Baidu after the stock experienced a sharp pullback.
The investment firm bought 97,597 shares of Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) spread across its ARKK, ARKQ, and ARKW exchange-traded funds. The combined purchase amounted to $12.21 million.
ARK’s buying activity came after Baidu shares dropped 5.7% in response to the company’s Q4 FY2025 earnings report. Although the internet search and AI company exceeded Wall Street’s earnings and revenue estimates, investors reacted negatively to a 4% year-over-year revenue decline.
The revenue decrease was largely attributed to ongoing weakness in Baidu’s core advertising business, which has struggled against persistent market pressures. These challenges offset strength demonstrated in other operational areas.
ARK’s purchase signals optimism about Baidu’s prospects beyond its advertising troubles. CEO Robin Li highlighted strong growth in AI cloud services and increasing enterprise adoption of Baidu’s AI-powered solutions.
Baidu’s AI-focused businesses — including cloud services, AI applications, and autonomous driving technology — produced $1.61 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter. This figure accounted for 43% of total quarterly revenue.
ARK Trims BWX Technologies and PagerDuty
On the selling side, ARK’s largest disposal involved 25,175 shares of BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT) worth $5.22 million. The nuclear technology company has faced repeated sell-downs from ARK over recent trading sessions.
The firm also sold 307,843 shares of PagerDuty (NYSE: PD), collecting roughly $2.18 million. Notably, PagerDuty shares climbed 5% during that same trading day.
This PagerDuty sale continues ARK’s pattern of reducing its stake in the cloud-based incident management platform over the past several weeks.
Additional sales included positions in Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BEAM), Iridium Communications (NASDAQ: IRDM), Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Pinterest (NYSE: PINS), and Butterfly Network (NYSE: BFLY).
Biotech Buys and Other Moves
ARK also acquired 482,407 shares of ATAI Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI) for about $1.79 million through its ARKG genomics-focused ETF.
ATAI shares plunged 14.1% during the same session, despite the company revealing positive Phase IIa clinical trial data for EMP-01, its experimental therapy for social anxiety disorder.
Analysts recognized the encouraging nature of the trial results but indicated the data didn’t justify the stock’s earlier valuation gains.
ARK also bought 4,836 Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares worth $814,966 and 25,382 shares of Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) valued at $1.87 million.
Based on TipRanks data, BIDU carries a Strong Buy consensus rating consisting of seven Buy recommendations and two Hold ratings. The average price target of $180.63 indicates potential upside of 44.3% from current price levels.
BIDU shares have gained 41.8% over the past year.
