META Meta Platforms Inc

LinkedIn Corp. said its loss widened in the first quarter, but it gave favorable guidance for its second quarter and boosted its full-year outlook, a contrast from its prior report when a downbeat forecast cut the company's value nearly in half.

Shares added 8.8% after hours to $133.89.

The professional online network said revenue rose 35% to $860.7 million, from $637.7 million a year earlier. Analysts expected LinkedIn to report first-quarter revenue of $828.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

LinkedIn reported a loss of $45.8 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with $42.5 million, or 34 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding stock-based compensation and some other expenses, LinkedIn said it earned 74 cents per share, compared with 57 cents per share on that basis a year earlier. Analysts expected LinkedIn to report adjusted earnings of 60 cents.

For the second quarter, LinkedIn said it anticipates earnings of 74 cents to 77 cents a share, above analyst expectations for 71 cents. Revenue is expected to come in between $885 million and $890 million, straddling analyst estimates for $886 million.

The company also boosted its outlook for the full year, saying it now expects revenue between $3.65 billion and $3.7 billion and adjusted earnings of $3.30 to $3.40 a share. It had previously forecast revenue of $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion and adjusted EPS of $3.05 to $3.20 a share.

In February, LinkedIn issued a disappointing financial outlook for 2016, sparking a 44% one-day share plunge that wiped out more than three years of stock market gains. The projection reflected a slowdown in its higher-margin online sales business, economic pressures overseas and a decision to shelve an ad product, executives said. LinkedIn shares are up slightly since then, but remain down 45% for the year as of Thursday's close.

Roughly two-thirds of LinkedIn's revenue comes from its talent solutions division, which helps recruiters identify job candidates. The company generated $502.4 million in revenue from the unit, which caters largely to corporate clients, compared with $396 million a year ago.

The disappointing outlook in February and sharp stock slide also triggered investor concerns over LinkedIn's reliance on stock-based compensation to recruit employees.

Over the past two years, LinkedIn's stock-based compensation has accounted for 16% of revenue-less than Twitter Inc.'s 39%, but about double Facebook Inc.'s 8%, according to RBC Capital Markets. At a conference in February, LinkedIn Chief Financial Officer Steve Sordello said LinkedIn's goal was to drive this ratio down to 10%.

One bright spot were native ads or "sponsored content" that appears within users' LinkedIn feeds. This was one of the company's fastest-growing ad products last year and is recorded within LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions division, which focuses on advertising.

LinkedIn said revenue in the marketing solutions unit rose to $154.1 million, from $119 million a year ago.

At the company's third business unit, premium subscriptions, revenue rose to $148.9 million, compared with $122 million last year.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2016 16:45 ET (20:45 GMT)

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