BMO Capital Downgrades LinkedIn (LNKD) to Market Perform
BMO Capital downgraded LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) from Outperform to Market Perform with a price target of $150.00 (from $280.00).
Analyst Dan Salmon commented, "Although the horse is long out of the barn from a stock price perspective, we came away from 4Q results with less confidence in our long-term thesis. Moreover, while US employment trends are still relatively strong, an uncertain air surrounding near-term hiring appeared to develop toward year-end; a number of staffing providers who have reported earnings so far this quarter have cited their clients becoming more cautious. In the prior cycle, LNKD’s offerings were still relatively new and, as such, the economic downturn had little impact on its business. That may not necessarily hold true this cycle. Looking more closely at the long-term product roadmap, the path to engaging new groups of power users (B2B marketers, salespeople) has been bumpier than expected. In particular, the shutdown of Lead Accelerator marks a retrenchment from a goal to enable long sales cycle B2B marketing by allowing messaging on both LinkedIn and off. In shutting down the product only 18 months after BIZO was acquired, we expect investors to be more skeptical of M&A."
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Shares of LinkedIn closed at $192.28 yesterday.