Harding Loevner, an investment management firm, published its “Global Equity Fund” third-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -1.31% was recorded by the fund for the third quarter of 2021, trailing its Benchmark, the MSCI World Index, which returned 0.09% for the same period. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.
Harding Loevner Global Equity Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) and discussed its stance on the firm. Baidu, Inc. is a Beijing, China-based internet company with a $51.1 billion market capitalization. BIDU delivered a -36.46% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -4.64%. The stock closed at $137.39 per share on December 03, 2021.
Here is what Harding Loevner Global Equity Fund has to say about Baidu, Inc. in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“In contrast, Baidu undertook and is now emerging from a muchneeded branching out from its original business of internet search, which has faced waves of regulatory threats and ferocious competition from other new online ad formats. Over the past several years it has invested heavily in the next longterm growth opportunities in Al, what it sees as its real core competency. After racking up over 12 million kilometers (7.5 million miles) of testing, Baidu’s autonomous driving system (ADS), Apollo, is now being deployed on certain less congested designated parts of the cities. In July, it introduced its robo-taxi services, Apollo Go, in Guangzhou (pop. 15 million), the fourth city where the service has launched, and it expects to roll out to 30 more cities over the next three years. Several Chinese carmakers such as Great Wall have announced plans to integrate Baidu’s system into their vehicles. Baidu’s Al initiatives should be viewed favorably by regulators because they align with overarching central government objectives around technology leadership and
reducing carbon emissions.Baidu’s technological innovation in internet search, Al, and ADS are made possible by accelerating advancement in semiconductors, a trend of considerable significance to our portfolio. The broad adoption of the internet of things (loT) and fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, the growing importance of Al and machine learning applications, and the mass uptake of electric vehicles (EVs)—all enabled by advanced semiconductors—are transforming a host of industries.”
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Based on our calculations, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. BIDU was in 44 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 59 funds in the previous quarter. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) delivered a -15.70% return in the past 3 months.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
