Shares in business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn Corp. plummeted Thursday after the company revised down forward projections in its financials for the fourth quarter and full year 2015.

LinkedIn predicted that revenue of $820 million in the first quarter, and $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion for 2016, missing analysts’ estimates of $867.1 million and $3.9 billion according to Bloomberg Business.

While the market didn’t like the forward projections, LinkedIn still reported a stellar quarter and year that was, growing to 414 million users at the end of December, up from 396 million in the prior quarter.

Revenue increased 34 percent in the fourth quarter to $862 million compared to the same quarter in 2014 and increased 35 percent for the full year of 2015 versus 2014 to $2.991 billion

Talent Solutions revenue, which includes the company’s Learning & Development division, saw an increase compared to the same periods in 2014 of 45 percent in Q4 to $535 million, and increased 41 percent for the full year to $1.877 billion.

Hiring revenue grew to $487 million and $1.77 billion in Q4 and 2015, up 32 and 33 percent respectively compared to Q4 and the full year in 2014.

Marketing solutions revenue, with includes sponsored updates, grew 20 percent in the fourth quarter to $183 million compared to the same period in 2014 and 28 percent to $581 million year-on-year.

Premium subscriptions revenue grew 19 percent year on year in Q4 to $144 million and 22% year on year to $532 million in 2015.

“Q4 was a strong quarter for LinkedIn, bringing to a close a successful year of growth and innovation against our long-term roadmap,” LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner said in a statement. “We enter 2016 with increased focus on core initiatives that will help drive growth and scale across our portfolio.”

Slowing market

The financials were not what had Wall Street talking as all focus fell on forward projections that on paper seem to be quite solid, but were under what the market was predicting.

“In this market, there’s no mercy for a miss,” Monness Crespi Hardt & Co. analyst James Cakmak told Bloomberg. “While the fourth-quarter results were solid, the outlook fell short as global macro and elevated investments pose headwinds for 2016.”

Put into more simple English, what that means is that increasing disruption in global financial markets is starting to reflect in business investment, and a slowing investment environment means lower jobs growth, and hence declining growth for companies such as LinkedIn that cater to that market.

LinkedIn to its credit has diversified somewhat, particularly with the purchase of Lynda.com in April 2015, but these side plays won’t turn around LinkenIn’s growth numbers over the short term.

Shares in LinkedIn dropped a staggering 28.69 percent in after-hours trading to $137.11, down from its closing price of $192.28 for the day, and more than 50 percent down from its 52-week market high of $276.18.

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