Professional networking website LinkedIn on Friday announced its fourth quarter financial results, boosting stock prices by 18 percent to $89.96 in trading with news that revenue increased by a whopping 105 percent.

The jump in LinkedIn’s stock price was the highest since the company began selling shares for $83 a pop on the New York Stock Exchange last May under the ticker symbol “LNKD”. LinkedIn fourth quarter revenues surged to $167.7 million, up from $81.7 million in 2010, in part because of a huge increase in income coming from its job recruiting services.  Other key metrics reported on a slideshow at the LinkedIn blog detail further positive developments: LinkedIn members increased to 150 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 90 million in Q4 2010, and 61 million in Q1 2010; unique visitors, according to comScore, were at 92 million in Q4 2011, up from 65 million in Q4 2010, and 46 million in Q1 2010; and page views according to comScore were 7.6 billion in Q4 2011, up from 5.5 billion in Q4 2010 and 3.6 bn in Q1 2010.

LinkedIn announced its fourth quarter financial results on Friday

CEO Jeff Weiner began the fourth quarter 2011 earnings conference call for LinkedIn by saying: “2011 was a landmark year for LinkedIn. We further strengthened our position as the preeminent professional network on the web.   Our members engaged with our platform at record levels, and we achieved significant growth across all three of our revenue streams.” Weiner then went on to detail the key milestones and important financial results for 2011 first noting that its 105 percent increase in revenue for Q4 2011 over the prior year also represents another significant milestone demonstrating LinkedIn’s continued strong performance and growth over the long term: Q4 2011 was the sixth consecutive quarter for which LinkedIn saw its revenue more than double over the prior year and for the full year, revenues doubled to $522 million, up from $243 million in 2010.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2011 also increased to $6.9 million, compared to $5.3 million for the same period in 2010, but net income for the full year dropped to $11.9 million down from $15.4 million the prior year because of a dramatic increase in sales, marketing, and development costs.

The biggest portion of revenue during 2011 was generated by LinkedIn’s hiring solutions products, accounting for $84.9 million, 136 percent higher than the prior year.

LinkedIn upgraded its mobile platform last year and now mobile devices account for 15 percent of all traffic. Weiner said the biggest increase in new users came from students and recent graduates.

LinkedIn membership numbers grew by 60 million during 2011, with the biggest growth in membership coming from outside the United States. The increase is an important milestone in another way – the growth in membership numbers is larger than the total number of members LinkedIn was able to attract during its first 6 ½ years.  LinkedIn headquarters are in Mountain View, California.

About David John Walker

Dave has a B.A. in Mathematics, loves writing and reading about the latest developments in technology and social media, and has been working as a freelance writer for five years.