LinkedIn value soars to more than 500 times earnings

The company made an impressive debut on the US stock market yesterday – doubling in value with hours of starting to trade.

The networking site raised US$352.8 million yesterday by selling eight per cent of the company or 7.84 million shares, for US$45 each.

Early trading in those shares on the New York Stock Exchange this morning saw the price peak at US$90 each at 10am.

That valuation dropped slightly by this afternoon, with shares trading at around US$88 apiece.

Last year, the company doubled revenue to US$243 million with profits of US$15.4 million, the previous year the social media site posted losses of US$4 million.

In the first three months of 2011 revenue doubled to around US$94 million with profits increasing 14 per cent year-on-year to US$2.1 million.

LinkedIn’s flotation on the US stock market followed the site crossing the 100-million member mark in March.

The company revealed that nearly 18 million people have joined some kind of professional group on LinkedIn, and 1.2 million posts are made by members each week.