SunTrust Weighs In On LinkedIn

Following stronger-than-expected earnings from LinkedIn Corp LNKD, SunTrust's Robert Peck weighed in with his Peck's Points.

"LinkedIn reported 3Q'14 last night and our main takeaways are:
1) the quarter beat on revenue (all segments), EBITDA, and EPS
2) 4Q revenue/ EBITDA / EPS guidance of $603M/$154M/$0.49 (mid point) is likely conservative as usual
3) TAS showed strong growth and a price increase will aid 2015
4) Marketing Solutions performed well vs. tougher comp driven by robust growth in Sponsored Updates (now 33% of revs)
5) Sales Navigator, though still early, is being well received and is now 25% of Premium Subscription revenues and has recently signed a large contract with SAP
6) incremental margins remained at 33.3% vs. EBITDA margins of 26.6%."

He maintained his Buy rating and $240 price target, raising 2015 revenues from $2.89 billion to $2.91 billion.

Shares of LinkedIn were trading higher by 6.3 percent at $202.90 in the premarket.