Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Top 5 Technology Stock Picks

3. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Bridgewater Associates’ Stake Value: $108,238,000

Percentage of Bridgewater Associates’ 13F Portfolio: 0.54%

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is a leading Chinese search engine operator and provider of Internet-related services. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) has a dominant market share in China’s search engine market and its strong brand and loyal user base make it a beneficiary of China’s rapidly growing Internet economy. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is well-positioned to benefit from the continued growth of the Chinese economy and the expansion of the Internet in China.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) has a strong cash position and a healthy balance sheet with low debt levels. The company has free cash flows of CNY 6.4 billion and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. As of September 30, Bridgewater Associates has stakes worth $108.2 million in the company.

This November, Barclays analyst Jiong Shao updated his price target on Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) to $139 from $146 and maintained an Overweight rating on the shares.

Here is what Baron Funds had to say about Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) in its third-quarter 2022 investor letter:

“As part of our digitization theme, we reiterate our conviction in Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) and InPost S.A. Baidu is a leading Chinese artificial intelligence company, which, in our view, is trading well below intrinsic value due to short-term economic and geopolitical uncertainties. We expect significant long-term upside given the company’s strong competitive position across several of China’s key growth industries. Baidu’s mobile ecosystem, which includes China’s dominant search engine, has over 620 million monthly active users. In our view, this ecosystem will benefit from the secular growth of China’s digital advertising industry, as well as the expansion of searchable content from established social media and e-commerce platforms resulting from recent regulatory reforms regarding data interoperability. Beyond its core search business, Baidu has invested heavily in cutting-edge technologies including cloud, autonomous driving, smart devices, and AI semiconductor chips. The company’s cloud business is one of the largest and fastest growing in China and is differentiated by its AI solutions and higher-value PaaS/SaaS offerings. Baidu has also developed leading autonomous driving technologies that it is commercializing through partnerships with top-tier Chinese auto manufacturers. We expect the company to sustain solid double-digit earnings growth over the next three to five years.”