After dropping following its latest earnings release, LinkedIn (LNKD.DL) is coming back with a vengeance. Shares gained 4% today in the wake of a bullish analyst rating at Stifle Nicolaus. The firm starting LinkedIn with a buy rating while assigning a $300 price target on the professional networker. Stifle Nicolaus maintains that LinkedIn is really evolving into a centralized platform for workers to develop and manage their entire career. That's giving investors confidence to overcome their earnings-related skepticism.
The earnings sell-off was a bit of an overreaction, as the modest shortfall in revenue guidance was easily offset by the outperformance in the previous quarter. LinkedIn has created a unique place for itself between social media and professional networking. Traditional sites like Monster merely list jobs, which is easily copied, while Facebook has had little to no success cracking into the professional scene.
In this segment of Tech Teardown, Erin Kennedy discusses LinkedIn with Evan Niu, CFA, our tech and telecom bureau chief.
