LinkedIn Corp (LNKD) Q2 2015 Earnings: Revenues Top $700 Million As Mobile Growth Fuels Strong Quarter

LinkedIn on Thursday beat analyst estimates for its second-quarter on the back of strong growth in its mobile business, sending the company's stock price up nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading.

The business networking company posted quarterly revenues of $712 million, up 33.33 percent compared to last year and far ahead of analysts' expectations of $679.8 million for the period. The story was the same with earnings per share, which came in at 55 for the quarter, a whopping 25 cents ahead of the 30 cents per share analysts had estimated.

LinkedIn increased its forecast for both the third quarter (between $745 million and $750 million) and the remainder of 2015 (around $2.94 billion), ahead of analysts' estimates. That bit of good news came after the company slashed its forecasts when it announced its first-quarter earnings in April.

“LinkedIn continued to deliver increased member and customer value in the second quarter while delivering solid financial results,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, in a statement. “We continued to invest in our long-term strategic roadmap and began integrating the acquisition of lynda.com that closed during the quarter.”

Leading the way for LinkedIn was mobile. The Mountain View, California, company said mobile now accounts for 52 percent of overall traffic, growing at "double the rate of overall member activity." More specifically, LinkedIn's Job Search app, which launched in March, reached 3 million activations, up from 1 million in the first quarter.

As a result of the strong mobile growth, mobile now represents 80 percent of all of LinkedIn's "sponsored updates" advertisements. "Sponsored Updates remains strong and will soon become the majority of our business, powered in particular by the shift to mobile," said Steve Sordello, LinkedIn chief financial officer, in a statement.

From its three revenue streams, LinkedIn saw 38 percent growth from its Talent Solutions business, 32 percent growth from Marketing Solutions and 22 percent growth from Premium Subscriptions.