Baidu forecasts stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue

By Alexei Oreskovic and Paul Carsten (Reuters) - Chinese Internet company Baidu Inc forecast better-than-expected revenue for the second quarter, sending shares up 5 percent in after-hours trading. Baidu said revenue in the second quarter will range between 11.820 billion yuan ($1.901 billion) and 12.110 billion yuan ($1.948 billion). Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were looking for second-quarter revenue of 11.573 billion yuan. Baidu said it saw strength in its core online search business during the first three months of the year and that it would continue to invest aggressively in its core business and in key strategic areas. Baidu is investing heavily in mobile companies amid a burst of M&A activity gripping China's tech sector, as the company attempts to woo customers onto its apps and convince customers of the value of paying for advertising on mobile devices rather than just PCs. Baidu's net income in the first three months of the year increased 24 percent to 2.535 billion yuan ($407.8 million). Excluding stock compensation costs, Baidu said it earned 7.69 yuan ($1.24) per American Depository Share in the first quarter. The company's revenue in the first quarter totaled 9.497 billion yuan versus 5.969 billion yuan in the year-ago period. Baidu said conversions from yuan to U.S. dollars were based on a rate of 6.2164 yuan to the dollar, the effective noon rate as of March 31, 2014. Shares of Baidu were up 5.2 percent at $167.97 in after-hours trading on Thursday. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco and Paul Carsten in Beijing; editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Matthew Lewis)