LinkedIn punches above its weight

The business network is a lean, monetization machine while Facebook could use time in the gym

No doubt. LinkedIn has been a standout compared to its high-profile social Internet brethren, which the market has completely soured on of late. 

LinkedIn shares are trading at $108, up 140% since going public in May 2011.

Meanwhile, Zynga has seen its stock nosedive 73% from its $10 IPO price, and Facebook shares are languishing 45% below their debut price of $38 last May.  Given the divergent way LinkedIn shares are performing, we thought we'd take a deeper look at its numbers and compare them to Facebook's. 

We know the two companies are not in the same business, but they're both recently public Internet companies and they're essentially the largest social networks (though LinkedIn's content is more professional and work related).  

Here is a look at the stats from both companies, based on their recently-released second quarter reports.

The takeaways is that LinkedIn is a smaller, leaner, monetization machine whereas Facebook could use some toning up.

Some of the highlights that you should take note of include the more money LinkedIn makes per user. LinkedIn makes $1.30 per user, per hour vs Facebook, which makes 6 cents, by the same measure. LinkedIn also spends a lot less on R&D than Facebook and is growing faster. 

Interestingly, the gap between their market caps are shrinking. And, if you compare enterprise values, there's even less of a gap because Facebook has $10 billion of cash on hand. 

Stock Price at close Friday

Facebook: $21.09

LinkedIn: $108.51

IPO price

Facebook: $38

LinkedIn: $45

Change in price since IPO

Facebook: - 44.5%

LinkedIn: +141.1%

Number of monthly average users

Facebook: 995 million

LinkedIn: 174 million

Growth of users year/year

Facebook: 29.2%

LinkedIn: 50%

Revenue in Q2

Facebook: $1.2 billion

LinkedIn: $228.2 million

Revenue growth year/year

Facebook: 32.3%

LinkedIn: 89%

Total 2011 revenue

Facebook: $3.71 billion

LinkedIn: $522.19 million

Ad revenue

Facebook: $992 million

LinkedIn: $63.1 million

Ad revenue growth year/year

Facebook: 27.8%

LinkedIn: 64%

Cost per customer acquistion

Facebook: $4.29

LinkedIn: $1.30

R+D investments

Facebook: $545 million

LinkedIn: $60.08 million

Year/year growth in R+D

Facebook: 1457%

LinkedIn: 100%

Percentage of revenue that R+D 

Facebook: 46%

LinkedIn: 26%

Cash on hand

Facebook: $10.19 billion

LinkedIn: $286.38 million

Enterprise value

Facebook: $28.17 billion

LinkedIn: $10.5 billion

Market cap

Facebook: $40.25 billion

LinkedIn: $11.15 billion

Revenue per user per hour

Facebook: 6 cents

LinkedIn: $1.30 

Time spent on site by average user

Facebook: 400 minutes per month

LinkedIn: 18 minutes per month

2012 revenue outlooks

Facebook: None from the company

LinkedIn: $915 million to $925 million

Consensus EPS for 2012

Facebook: 49 cents

LinkedIn: 69 cents

(Image sources: Eastsideboxing.com and sanjosearthurmurray.com)