Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU) has been a security we don’t hear much about here in the US, though they are the dominant search engine company in China, dominating even Google Inc.  (Nasdaq:  GOOG).

BIDU has consistently outpaced the S & P and seemed to be one of the few stocks that wasn’t affected by the bleeding out on Wall Street last week.  What’s even more impressive is if you review their sales for the last four quarters.  In December of 2006, the company sales were 36.47 million with cost of sales being 7.90 million.  Sales in September of 07 jumped to an impressive 66.14 million (cost to 24.07 million).  The gross operating profit has been impressive as well, 27.56 million in December of 2006 versus 42.07 million in September of 07. 

This is a company that as of September had no long or short term debt, total liabilities of less than 74 million and total capitalization of 238.16 million.  Their growth rate has been staggering, nearly 300% per share over 3 years and more than 500% during the last year.  Their revenue growth is also impressive, more than 150% this year alone while earnings per share have been on a steady increase since 2005, beginning then at a mere .20 and today being more than 1.60 per share.

This is company that warrants some attention, though there are some valuation concerns.  When the stock began trading over 300 dollars per share, it is higher than most profit target projections and if Google continues to gain popularity in China, that could burst the Baidu bubble.  Baidu did strike some good ad deals this year, including deals with Microsoft, China Telecom and China Netcom. 

With the death of their Chief Financial Officer being announced on Sunday (he was vacationing in China) it will be interesting to see what will happen to the stock on Monday.  The company has been reluctant to disclose much, except that he died on 12/27 in an accident.

I am not sure at this price that I’d run out and buy Baidu.com but I’m not so sure if I had the stock if I’d sell it right now either! There still may be some growth left in it!