LNKD

LinkedIn Acknowledges Its Stock Is Overpriced

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Business social networking site LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) announced Wednesday afternoon that it would execute a secondary public offering expected to close on September 10. LinkedIn will offer 5,381,166 shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $223 per share for proceeds of $1.2 billion. When a well-capitalized company like LinkedIn offers stock, it can often signal that the company believes its shares are overvalued. As of its most recent quarter, LinkedIn had over $800 million in cash and short-term investments against no long-term debt. The company was also free cash flow positive (albeit free cash flow wasn’t robust) in fiscal year 2012. LinkedIn isn’t in dire need of cash, so we think the company … Read more

Icahn Reignites Apple

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Shares of Best Ideas portfolio and Dividend Growth portfolio holding Apple (click ticker for report: ) showed considerable relative strength following solid third quarter results July 24. Pricing momentum was augmented when legendary money manager Carl Icahn (or iCahn) sent out a series of tweets about the tech giant on August 13. iCahn Moves the Market Icahn needs no introduction, as he boasts a rumored net worth in excess of $20 billion, has engaged in numerous high-profile corporate battles (US Steel, Dell, TWA), and without question is considered one of the greatest money managers of his era. When Icahn speaks (or tweets), markets listen. While Icahn’s presence as an Apple shareholder has little, if any, fundamental change on the company, his … Read more

LinkedIn’s Powerful Network Drives Strong Results

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Thursday after the market close, business networking power LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) announced robust second quarter results. Total revenue surged 59% year-over-year to $364 million, easily exceeding consensus estimates. Non-GAAP earnings per share swelled 137% year-over-year to $0.38, smashing consensus expectations. Free cash flow totaled $31 million, equal to 9% of total revenue. Image Source: LNKD 2Q 2013 Investor Presentation Above all, membership growth continues to be the contributing factor to LinkedIn’s success, in our view. Membership surged 9% sequentially and 37% year-over-year to 238 million users. As a result of membership expansion, LinkedIn is experiencing strong growth in unique visitors and page views. The story is simple: as LinkedIn network swells in membership, we see more advertisers, … Read more

Three Very Good Questions From Members

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Q: Why do you use a risk free rate assumption of 4.25% when the current spot rate of the 10-year Treasury is about 2%? In our discounted cash-flow models that we use to value every non-financial operating company in our coverage universe, we match the duration of future free cash flows (from year 1 to perpetuity) with expectations of the average discount rate over this forecast horizon (from year 1 to perpetuity). We think the best way to achieve expectations of the long-term future average rate of the 10-year Treasury (risk free rate) is to use the weighted average of the historical 10-year Treasury and the current spot rate. The goal of using a weighted average risk free rate in … Read more

Facebook and LinkedIn Early In Monetization; Neither a Bargain

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During the past week, publicly traded social media giants Facebook (click ticker for report: ) and LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) both reported strong first quarter results. Facebook’s revenue grew 38% year-over-year to $1.46 billion, exceeding consensus estimates, while earnings per share were flat at $0.12. LinkedIn’s revenue surged 72% year-over-year to $325 million driving earnings per share of $0.45—both figures handily better than consensus expectations. Cash flow at both companies revealed significantly different stories. LinkedIn generated roughly $59 million in free cash flow as the company’s research and development spending was kept in check. Facebook posted negative free cash flow of $12 million as the firm invested heavily in mobile, servers, and data centers. Both firms’ valuations are … Read more

Shares of Baidu Are Just Too Cheap

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Valuations for internet technology companies are literally all over the place. On one end of the spectrum sits LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) and Amazon (click ticker for report: )—fast growing firms with sky-high PE multiples and tremendous credit given to the long-run. On the other end, we have Apple (click ticker for report: ) generating fantastic amounts of free cash flow, and trading with a single-digits forward PE. Chinese search giant Baidu (click ticker for report: ) falls closer to Apple, and we think shares look incredibly cheap at current levels. Let’s take a closer look at the search giant. Valuation Baidu’s valuation on a discounted cash flow basis looks extremely reasonable. We estimate shares to be worth … Read more

LinkedIn Surges on Terrific Revenue Growth

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Online business networking giant LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) reported fantastic growth for its fourth quarter late last week. Revenue surged 81% year-over-year to $304 million, easily exceeding consensus expectations. Earnings also easily surged past consensus estimates, growing nearly 200% year-over-year to $0.35 per share on an adjusted basis (Image Source: LinkedIn). Strength was broad based, as the firm’s human resources tools drove talent solutions revenue 90% higher on a year-over-year basis, to $161 million. With membership growth strong (up 39% during the year) and the network now having over 200 million users, LinkedIn has become the de facto market place for employers and job hunters alike. As a result, its talent solutions business becomes more valuable literally by … Read more

Revenue Growth at LinkedIn Remains Strong But Shares Are Expensive

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Business networking leader LinkedIn (click ticker for report: ) reported relatively strong third quarter results last Thursday afternoon. Revenue growth continued its robust path, surging 81% year-over-year to a consensus beating $252 million. Excluding several items, earnings accelerated 267% year-over-year to $0.22 per share—more than double the consensus estimate. Unlike most firms’ non-GAAP items, which exclude “one-time” expenses, LinkedIn’s earnings exclude very real costs like stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible asset acquisitions—perhaps non-cash, but still material, in our view. Regardless, the company’s third quarter results reflected relatively strong performance. Talent (Hiring) Solutions revenue increased 95% year-over-year to $138.4 million. The segment continues to steal market share away the old line of online hiring solutions, including Monster Worldwide (click ticker … Read more