The social network that targets professional users and specializes in recruiting services has in past months trotted a series of enhancements such as news content for mobile devices, to keep users signed in longer and sell more advertising.

But on Thursday, executives warned that its advertising business will undergo "a more moderate growth" than its other services. Its fledgling, mobile-oriented "newsfeed" ads - or promotions that appear directly in a users' stream of content - remained in testing and would only be introduced gradually.

"The stock is somewhat a victim of its own success," said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice.

"They had a really big acceleration in Q4," said Rice. "So I think the market kind of expected similar results in Q1 and throughout 2013."

Shares of LinkedIn have surged about 74 percent this year in a mostly disappointing social media sector. The company's bread-and-butter recruiting services - which accounted for 57 percent of sales - generated strong 80 percent growth in revenue to $184.3 million in the first quarter.

But it said current-quarter revenue would range from $342 million to $347 million, below the $359.3 million expected on average by analysts.

Although LinkedIn hiked its full-year revenue forecast by $20 million on Thursday, the high end of the forecast range was below the average analyst estimate of $1.49 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said net income for the first quarter rose to $22.6 million, or 20 cents a share, from $5 million, or 4 cents a share, over the same period. Excluding certain items, LinkedIn said it earned 45 cents a share in the first quarter, well above the 31 cents expected by analysts.

Revenue in the first three months of the year rose 72 percent to $324.7 million from $188.5 million in the year-ago period.

LinkedIn shares slid about 10 percent to $181 from a close of $201.67 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker)

By Alexei Oreskovic