NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
LinkedIn shares surge on better than expected Q1 financials, improved guidance for year ahead
Shares in business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn Corp. surged Thursday after the company announced better than expected first quarter financial results.
LinkedIn reported revenue of $861 million for the quarter, up 35 percent over the same quarter of 2015 and well ahead of analysts who had predicted revenue of $829 million.
The increase in revenue came from across the business, with talent solutions leading the charge with a 41 percent year-on-year increase to $558 million, with the “learning & development” subsection contributing $55 million to the figure, presumably representing growth from Lynda.com, the training business it acquired in February 2015.
Marketing solutions revenue hit $154 million in the quarter, up 29 percent compared to Q1 2015, while premium subscriptions were up 22 percent to $149 million.
User numbers grew 19 percent to 433 million.
The company is still not making a profit, however, with a net loss attributable to common stockholders coming in at $46 million, compared to a loss of $44 million for the same quarter in 2015.
“We are off to a good start in 2016 with strength in our core and emerging businesses,” LinkedIn Chief Financial Officer Steve Sordello said in a statement. “We continue to invest heavily in innovation and in our core products, while at the same time driving focus and scale to enable growth and leverage across the business.”
Forward projections
What got the market more excited was that unlike the last quarter where LinkedIn predicted a slowdown in its growth, the company went the other way this time and predicted increased revenues.
For the second quarter LinkedIn predicted revenue in range between $885 million and $890 million, with adjusted EBITDA is expected to range between $225 million and $230 million; for the full year guidance put revenue at a range between $3.65 billion and $3.70 billion on adjusted EBITDA of $985 million to $1.005 billion.
The revision in forward growth would appear to be driven by LinkedIn’s new mobile app, or what the company describes as its “new mobile flagship experience.”
According to the numbers, viral actions increased more than 80 percent, daily shares were up nearly 40 percent, and traffic to third-party publishers grew more than percent in quarter one due to the new mobile experience, and LinkedIn expects this level of interaction to grow, delivering it not only a more engaged audience, but increased opportunities for advertising as well.
LinkedIn shares surged $10.04, or 8.17 percent to close at $132.98 in after-hours trading, although still well down from its $276.18 52 week high.
Image credit: linkhumans/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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