LinkedIn Results Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), the world's largest online professional network, said Thursday after the markets closed that its second quarter loss widened sharply from last year, as higher costs and expenses more than offset a 33% increase in revenue.

However, the company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in well above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue. At the same time, the company raised its revenue and earnings outlook for the full year.

"LinkedIn continued to deliver increased member and customer value in the second quarter while delivering solid financial results," said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. "We continued to invest in our long-term strategic roadmap and began integrating the acquisition of lynda.com that closed during the quarter."

LinkedIn shares are currently losing 7.33% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $227.15, dwon $4.85 or 2.09%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $178.76 to $276.18.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2015, the Mountain View, California-based company reported a net loss of $67.7 million or $0.53 per share, compared to a net loss of $1 million or $0.01 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the second quarter was $71.4 million or $0.55 per share, compared to $63.3 million or $0.51 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 39 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.30 per share for the second quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net revenue for the second quarter rose 33% to $711.74 million from $533.88 million in the same quarter last year. Thirty-six analyst had a consensus revenue estimate of $679.80 million for the second quarter.

The company recorded strong revenue growth across all its three product categories. Second quarter revenues from talent solutions products jumped 38% to $443 million, while revenue from marketing solutions products surged 32% to $140 million and revenue from premium subscriptions products climbed 22% to $128 million.

Second quarter cumulative members grew 21% to 380 million, unique visiting members grew 16% to an average of 97 million per month, and member page views grew 37%.

Mobile continues to grow at double the rate of overall member activity, and now represents 52% of all traffic to LinkedIn.

Looking forward to the third quarter, the company forecasts revenue of $745 million to $750 million and adjusted earnings of about $0.43 per share. Analyst currently expect the company to earn $0.43 per share on revenue of $743.68 million for the third quarter.

For the full year 2015, the company now forecasts revenue of about $2.94 billion and adjusted earnings of about $2.19 per share. Previously, the company forecast revenue of about 2.90 billion and adjusted earnings of about $1.90 per share. Analyst currently expect the company to earn $1.93 per share on revenue of $2.91 billion for the full year 2015.

LinkedIn results followed that of two other social media companies Twitter Inc (TWTR) and Facebook, Inc. (FB), which reported quarterly results earlier this month.