LinkedIn shares collapsed after forecasting for the next quarter

After summarizing the fourth quarter of this week, shares of the social network LinkedIn collapsed by 30% after the close of trading. The reasons are simple - a disappointing outlook for the future of the company's income. Even the results of the fourth quarter of 2015, which exceeded analysts' forecasts, did not affect the collapse of stocks.

Revenue for the first quarter of 2016 should be $ 820 million with earnings per share of 55 cents, for the whole year the company plans to earn about $ 3.6 billion. These forecasts were below expectations - analysts predicted the company's profit at $ 867 million for the first quarter and $ 3, 9 billion for the whole year.
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Over the last quarter, LinkedIn was able to earn $ 862 million against the forecast of $ 858 million and an increase of 34% compared to the same period last year. Earnings per share of the company amounted to 94 cents against the expected 78 cents. As for the performance of the active audience, a total of LinkedIn registered 414 users with 100 million monthly audience. More than 57% of these users use a social network from mobile devices, and growth in this segment is most noticeable - on average, LinkedIn from mobile devices are recorded three times more often.

“The fourth quarter of 2015 showed a steady growth in our social network. We are entering 2016, targeting several initiatives that will increase growth across our entire product portfolio, ”said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.

In addition to focusing on new initiatives, the company intends to influence the audience with the help of specialized materials from leading experts, with whom it will agree on a partnership.

But all this is not too encouraging to investors - the company was not able to present a clear model of monetization of its audience, which, against the background of reduced forecasts for the level of profit in the next quarter, only accelerated the collapse of stock prices. Given this, a return to previous figures is unlikely to occur in the next month, unless the forecast for the first fiscal quarter of 2016 for LinkedIn will not change radically.