“‘Yeah, so the online business, it has been decelerating over the last few years. It’s a structural decel, if you look at our Subs business in the aggregate... the trajectory of the online business is it’s been pretty linear in terms of the year-on-year growth rate.’”

— LinkedIn Management

LinkedIn is set to report Q1 earnings after the bell (released at 4:05pm ET last quarter). The company also has a conference call scheduled to follow at 5:00pm ET, to discuss their results.

Key Metrics/Guidance

Q1
- Guidance for adj EPS of ~$0.55 on revs of ~$820 mln.

Capital IQ Consensus is calling for adj EPS of $0.60 on revenues of $827.7 mln (+30% Y/Y).

FY16

Guidance for adj EPS of ~$3.05-3.20 on revenues of $3.6-3.65 bln.

Consensus is calling for adj EPS of $3.20 on revenues of $3.67 bln (+23% Y/Y).

Important User Metrics from Q4'15

Cumulative members grew 19% Y/Y to 414 mln
Unique visiting members grew 7% Y/Y to an average of 100 mln per month
Member page views grew 26% Y/Y to 37 bln (but down 3% Q/Q)
Valuation

Some analysts believe that LinkedIn's management was possibly conservative in their guidance.

REULTS:

LinkedIn beats by $0.14, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS above consensus, revs in-line; raises FY16 EPS above consensus, raises revs, in-line (123.01 +4.16)

Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.74 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.14 better than the Consensus of $0.60; revenues rose 35.0% year/year to $861 mln vs the $828.66 mln Consensus.
- Talent Solutions revenue increased 41% year-over-year to $558 million.
  - Hiring revenue contributed $502 million in revenue, up 27% year-over-year.
  - Learning & Development contributed $55 million in revenue.
- Marketing Solutions revenue increased 29% year-over-year to $154 million.
- Premium Subscriptions revenue increased 22% year-over-year to $149 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $222 million, or 26% of revenue.
Co issues guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.74-0.77, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.71 Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $885-890 mln vs. $887.27 mln Consensus Estimate.
Co issues guidance for FY16, raises EPS to $3.30-3.40 from $3.05-3.20, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $3.22 Consensus; raises FY16 revs to $3.65-3.70 bln from $3.60-3.65 bln vs. $3.68 bln Consensus Estimate.

LinkedIn Call Highlights:

Engagement materially strengthened across their member platform, driven by our new flagship experience.
Core monetization products — Recruiter and Sponsored Updates — showed continued growth, while their emerging strategic investments such as Sales Navigator and Learning & Development continue to show progress.
Saw significant improvements in their ability to increase ROI across the business.
They saw better than expected results in EMEA across all of their product lines.

Late For Work ($LNKD Earnings Preview)