Do LinkedIn’s Earnings Leave Facebook in the Dust?

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) has shown it has the necessary growth drivers to keep its impressive momentum going. Its fourth-quarter results beat analysts’ expectations on Thursday, just as they have done every quarter since the company went public in May 2011.

It is through this streak that LinkedIn proves how vastly different its business model is from that of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), despite the obvious similarities between the two. The professional networking company generates some revenue from advertising, like Facebook does, but it makes most of its money by selling subscriptions to employers, headhunters, and others.

Analysts and investors alike anticipated that the company would post strong results for the fourth quarter. The fact that the company surpassed 2 million account-holders for the first time earlier this year helped, but of course, that is not always an indicator of profitability. For all of its users, Facebook has had a very difficult time monetizing its social network, especially its mobile platform.

Investors’ confidence in LinkedIn’s ability to continue its growth trajectory has been evident in its skyrocketing stock price. Shares of LinkedIn hit an all-time high of $127.45 in late January, and the stock continued to trade near that price ahead of the earnings release. Analysts were similarly confident, predicting that the company would report earnings of 19 cents per share on revenue of $280 million…