TLDR
- Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought 97,597 shares of Baidu (BIDU) for $12.21 million following a 5.7% post-earnings stock decline
- Baidu topped Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but reported a 4% year-over-year revenue drop due to advertising sector struggles
- ARK sold 25,175 shares of BWX Technologies (BWXT) for $5.22 million, continuing its recent reduction in this position
- The firm also offloaded holdings in PagerDuty (PD), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM), Iridium (IRDM), Salesforce (CRM), and Butterfly Network (BFLY)
- Baidu’s AI business segment generated $1.61 billion in Q4, representing 43% of total quarterly revenues
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest made a substantial move on Thursday, February 26, purchasing shares of Chinese tech behemoth Baidu after the stock experienced a significant downturn.
The investment management firm bought 97,597 shares of Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) across its ARKK, ARKQ, and ARKW funds. The total purchase value reached $12.21 million.
The acquisition came after Baidu shares dropped 5.7% in response to the company’s Q4 FY2025 earnings announcement. Although the search engine giant beat Wall Street expectations for both profit and revenue, investors reacted negatively to a 4% year-over-year revenue decrease.
The revenue decline was largely attributed to persistent weakness in Baidu’s core advertising business, which has encountered ongoing pressures. These challenges eclipsed encouraging performance in the company’s other operational areas.
ARK’s purchase indicates optimism about opportunities beyond the advertising struggles. CEO Robin Li highlighted strong growth in AI cloud services and expanding enterprise adoption of Baidu’s artificial intelligence technologies.
Baidu’s AI-focused businesses — including cloud services, AI applications, and self-driving vehicle technology — produced $1.61 billion in Q4 revenue. This figure comprised 43% of total quarterly income.
ARK Trims BWX Technologies and PagerDuty
On the selling side, ARK’s largest divestment involved 25,175 shares of BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT) worth $5.22 million. The nuclear technology company has experienced repeated position cuts from ARK throughout the current week.
The firm also sold 307,843 shares of PagerDuty (NYSE: PD), collecting roughly $2.18 million. Notably, PagerDuty shares climbed 5% during the same trading day.
This PagerDuty sale continues ARK’s pattern of reducing its stake in the cloud operations software company over recent weeks.
Additional divestments included 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 concurrently acquired 482,407 shares of ATAI Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI) worth approximately $1.79 million through its ARKG genomics-oriented fund.
ATAI shares fell 14.1% during that trading session, even after releasing positive Phase IIa clinical trial data for EMP-01, its candidate therapy for social anxiety disorder.
Market observers recognized the trial results as scientifically promising but indicated the data didn’t justify the stock’s earlier price gains.
ARK also bought 4,836 shares of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) for $814,966 and 25,382 shares of Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) worth $1.87 million.
Per TipRanks, BIDU carries a Strong Buy consensus rating based on seven Buy ratings 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.
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