On Monday Twitter reported slowing user growth setting up that stock to open down 13% the following day. Tuesday Facebook told investors that its costs will rise between 50% and 70% next year -- shares opened down 6.6% Wednesday. Initially its seemed LinkedIn would complete the crummy social earnings trifecta as the stock tumbled as much as 7% following its after-hours release Thursday. But about 45 minutes after the closing bell the stock was up more than 2.5% to around $208.50.
The professional network reported $568 million in third quarter revenue, up 45% from the same period last year and ahead of Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate. However, the company's net loss steepened to $4.3 million compared to $3.4 million in third quarter 2013. Per share the loss was 3 cents. Adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation LinkedIn reported $66 million in net income, up 53% from last year. This means adjusted earnings per share were 52 cents, 5 cents better than the Street call.
"LinkedIn demonstrated strength in the third quarter, leveraging the scale created by our member network to deliver growth across all three product lines," said LinkedIn CFO Steve Sordello in a statement, referring to the company's talent solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions lines of revenue. "We continue to make aggressive investments in our member and customer platforms in order to realize our long-term potential."
The company expects it full year revenue to come in between $2.175 billion and $2.18 billion with the fourth quarter contributing between $600 million and $605 million. LinkedIn forecasts non-GAAP full year earnings per share to $1.89 with the fourth quarted coming in at 49 cents.
Twitter and Facebook shares were both trending slightly higher after-hours Thursday, after falling 0.7% and 2.3% respectively during the trading day.
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