The report shocked Wall Street strong fall in revenues, which were significantly worse than expected. The shares dropped to a three-year low of $124.51 from the start of trading. This is a dramatic reduction in the price since IPO in 2011. At least seven brokerages have reduced the recommendation on the shares from BUY to HOLD. With low growth profile, I believe that LinkedIn should not count on a slight increase in revenue and audience. Also on the target share price forecast was reduced from $258 to $150. Also lowered their forecasts such large brokerage firms: Raymond James, Cowen and Co, BMO Capital Markets, J.P.Morgan Securities and RBC Capital Markets.
LinkedIn forecasts for the current year revenue of $3.60-$3.65 billion., which is less than forecasts of analysts in a Thomson Reuters $3.91 billion. This fact means that LinkedIn will grow by about 15% in 2017 and 10% in 2018.
Besides slowing LinkedIn audience growth also decreased the growth of revenues from advertising on the site. Revenues grew by only 20% in 2015 while in 2014 the growth was 56%.
In recent months, LinkedIn has spent a lot of funds for the expansion of purchases by companies hiring for sales outside the USA. But now faced with the pressure in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region from the challenges of the global economy.