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LinkedIn ( LNKD ) is set to report earnings after the close Thursday as it seeks to boost mobile user growth and usage among small and midsize businesses. The social networking site for professionals is expected to report revenue of $857.6 million, up 33% from the year-earlier quarter. In Q3, year-over-year sales rose 37%. The consensus estimate on earnings per share minus items, based on analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, is 78 cents, up 28% but a slowdown from 50% year-over-year growth in Q3. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney on Tuesday reiterated an outperform rating on LinkedIn with a price target of 300. LinkedIn stock was up about 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . It closed down 6% Wednesday at 191.25, about 26% off a nine-month high above 258 touched on Nov. 12. LinkedIn stock fell below its 10-week moving average in late December. “LinkedIn’s fundamentals are the strongest of any large-cap Internet stock,” Mahaney wrote. In December, LinkedIn rolled out its new mobile app, Voyager, designed to be faster and more intuitive for users. “We believe this app could lead to greater engagement on the service and will be listening to the Q4 call for any mention of the product’s performance,” Mahaney wrote. LinkedIn eased concerns of slowing growth when it reported third-quarter earnings on Oct. 29 that topped expectations. LinkedIn ended the quarter with 396 million members, up 20% from Q3 2104. The stock popped 11% the day after. “We interpret this intraquarter share price performance as implying slightly negative expectations going into fourth-quarter earnings,” Mahaney wrote. The company has three revenue streams. Talent Solutions, used by companies to recruit employees, accounted for 64% of revenue in Q3. Marketing Solutions, which sells ads, accounted for 18%. Premium Subscriptions, fees paid by users for enhanced services, accounted for the other 18%. LinkedIn gets a strong Composite Rating of 90 from IBD out of a possible 99. Facebook ( FB ) continued to show it’s king of social media with a fourth-quarter earnings report last week that soundly beat expectations on booming mobile ad revenue. Facebook revenue rose 52% to $5.84 billion from the year-earlier period. Monthly active users on Facebook came in at 1.59 billion. Twitter ( TWTR ) is set to report earnings after the close on Feb. 10. Twitter stock has lost about 60% of its value in the past 12 months on worries about slowing user growth and rising competition for online ad revenue. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News