Chicago, IL – April 1, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Baidu BIDU as the Bull of the Day and Canadian Solar CSIQ as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI, MPLX LP MPLX and The Williams Companies, Inc. WMB.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Zacks Rank #1 stock (Strong Buy) Baidu is a Chinese-language internet search provider based in Beijing. Baidu is the largest internet search provider in China. Like its American counterpart, Alphabet, Baidu offers a plethora of services beyond traditional search, including maps, online communities, an encyclopedia, and a cloud-based storage service.
Though the United States still leads the AI race (albeit by a small margin), China is closing the gap. In addition, Baidu and other Chinese tech companies do not have to worry about foreign competition. Baidu introduced its AI chatbot through the ERNIE large language model (LLM) in 2023. Since then, the ERNIE platform has reached 300 million users during March 2025 while integrating with Samsung's Galaxy S24 operating system in China.
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would be working with Baidu to work on AI search features for image and text processing, for its Chinese Siri as part of Apple's "China Intelligence" initiative. Considering that Apple likely consulted with many Chinese companies, yet chose Baidu, is telling.
While many investors focus on the battle for robotaxi supremacy stateside between Tesla and Google's Waymo, they are still very much in their infancy, with Waymo operating a small fleet in a handful of US cities and Tesla set to launch this summer in Austin. Conversely, Baidu's "Apollo Go" has already achieved significant success in China and is in the process of expanding globally.
Apollo Go provided more than 1.1 million rides in Q4 and a total of more than 9 million since inception. Baidu has attained permits in several Chinese cities and is expanding to countries like Dubai. As Baidu scales Apollo Go, it will be able to provide safer rides with its massive autonomous driving track record and reduce costs.
Despite the successful launch of the "Ernie Bot" and Baidu's rapidly growing autonomous taxi fleet, Wall Street analysts have been underestimating Baidu's EPS potential recently by a wide margin. Last quarter, BIDU beat Zacks Consensus Estimates by a healthy 47.75%. Meanwhile, BIDU has beat analyst estimates by an average of 19.11% over the past four quarters.
From a price-to-sales perspective, Baidu's valuation is nearly the lowest it has been since inception.
BIDU recently broke out of a bullish inverse head and shoulders pattern. Meanwhile, shares have recaptured the 200-day moving average, signaling a long-term trend change.
Baidu's advancements in AI, strategic partnerships like the one with Apple, and the impressive growth of its Apollo Go robotaxi service, highlight its strong growth potential.
Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock Canadian Solar is an Ontario-based global renewable energy company founded in 2001. The company produces solar photovoltaic modules and delivers complete solar energy solutions. CSIQ has two primary businesses: CSI Solar, which focuses on producing solar modules and battery storage systems, and Recurrent Energy, which develops and manages utility-scale solar and energy storage projects. The company's products include a range of solar modules built for use in a wide range of residential, commercial, and industrial solar power generation systems.
For decades, Donald Trump has talked about how the United States is being taken advantage of by other countries on trade, leading to unfair trade imbalances. During his first term, he was able to negotiate the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement). However, once again back in power Trump, and this time with a "mandate," Trump is looking to level the playing field more this time. In doing so, he has declared April 2nd "Liberation Day" for America – a day where he will levy "reciprocal" tariffs on countries that he feels are abusing the United States.
While the full details of the Trump tariff plan will not be unveiled until April 2nd, Canada appears to be in the crosshairs. In fact, Canada, which supplies parts of the US with energy, threatened to add a surcharge to electricity for US customers. Though the energy surcharge has been removed, the rhetoric between the US and Canada has reached a tipping point. The new tariffs will likely include solar panels and raw materials needed to manufacture them.
The average selling price of solar modules is decreasing significantly due to increased manufacturing capacity in China from companies like Jinko Solar.Chinese competitors dominate the market, flooding it with an oversupply of solar products while driving down prices globally. Meanwhile, Tesla'senergy storage and energy generation business is has grown 67% year-over-year, while deployments have soared.
Wall Street analysts project that will lose money in 2025. Meanwhile, tariffs and Chinese competition could make those losses more profound. In addition, CSIQ has a negative Zacks Earnings "Expected Surprise Prediction" score, which suggests that a negative earnings surprise will likely occur next time the company reports.
CSIQ's relative weakness over the past year is troubling. The stock is down 56% while the S&P 500 Index is up 6.8% over the same time.
The evolving global trade landscape, increased competition from China, and falling solar prices mean Canadian Solar faces significant headwinds in the coming months.
During the initial phase of the pandemic, when vaccines were unavailable, the world faced significant uncertainties. Crude oil prices experienced an unprecedented plunge, dropping to a negative $36.98 per barrel on April 20, 2020. However, the rapid development and rollout of vaccines facilitated the gradual reopening of economies, leading to a remarkable recovery in the pricing of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which soared to $123.64 per barrel by March 8, 2022. Oil price data are per the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
This highlights the inherent exposure of most energy companies to extreme volatility in commodity prices. However, unlike most energy companies, Kinder Morgan, Inc., MPLX LP and The Williams Companies, Inc. are not highly vulnerable to commodity prices.
Although the fate of energy players is highly dependent on oil and gas prices, stocks in the midstream space have lower exposure to volatility in commodity prices than oil and gas producers. This is because midstream players generate stable fee-based revenues since the transportation and storage assets are being booked by shippers for the long term. Hence, their business model is relatively low-risk, which indicates considerably less exposure to oil and gas prices and volume risks.
Kinder Morgan: With its operating interests in oil and gas pipeline networks spread across 83,000 miles, KMI is a leading energy infrastructure company in North America. It derives most of its earnings from take-or-pay contracts, generating stable fee-based revenues.
The midstream energy major is poised to grow due to its business model, which is relatively resilient to volume and commodity price risks.
MPLX: MPLX's midstream business comprises transporting crude oil and refined products. Thus, the partnership generates stable cash flows from its long-term contracts with the shippers. The partnership's crude oil and natural gas gathering systems also generate stable fee-based revenues.
The Williams Companies: It is well-poised to capitalize on the mounting demand for clean energy since it is engaged in transporting, storing, gathering and processing natural gas and natural gas liquids.
With its pipeline networks spread across more than 30,000 miles, The Williams Companies connects premium basins in the United States to the key market. WMB's assets can meet 30% of the nation's natural gas consumption, which is utilized for heating purposes and clean-energy generation.
Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
See Stocks Free >>
Media Contact
Zacks Investment Research
800-767-3771 ext. 9339
https://www.zacks.com
Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (WMB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
MPLX LP (MPLX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
Zacks Investment Research
