The days leading up to LinkedIn's (NYSE: LNKD) earnings report on Feb. 4 were just fine for shareholders. February began with LinkedIn stock trading in the $205-per-share range -- well below its 52-week high of $276.18, but certainly nothing to sneeze at. Then fourth-quarter and fiscal 2015 numbers were announced, and the bottom fell out. LinkedIn is now sitting at about $100 a share, more than 40% off last week's share price.

The problem was LinkedIn's expectations for this quarter and year. Guidance was less than industry pundits expected, and LinkedIn shareholders are paying the price for its pending "miss." The question is: Does the lower-than-expected revenue guidance for Q1 really warrant such a steep sell-off? For a host of reasons, I think the answer is "no," which should be music to the ears of long-term growth investors in search of value.

Image source: LinkedIn.

You're kidding, right?
LinkedIn's earning's call seemed to be going just fine, particularly following the news that it had boosted membership up to 414 million from 347 million a year ago. Granted, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) is  measured by MAUs rather than members as LinkedIn is, but its recent decline to 305 million monthly average users (MAUs) as of Q4 last quarter, was actually 2 million less than 2015's Q3. That compares to LinkedIn's 100 million MAUs last quarter. But being a niche player in the professional networking-social media space has, historically, given LinkedIn some leesway regarding its monthly usage. 

Revenue in each of its three business units also climbed, led by a whopping 41% jump in LinkedIn's talent solutions division, which generated $1.88 billion in sales last year. Not bad, considering just a year ago the unit reported $1.33 billion in revenue. Though smaller by comparison, both the marketing solutions and premium subscriptions divisions also improved year over year, reporting 28% and 22% improvements, respectively.

For what it's worth, LinkedIn's revenue and earnings both beat analyst expectations. Revenue estimate were for $858 million, and earnings per share of $0.94 blew past consensus estimates of $0.78,   which generally leads to at least a momentary stock price pop. Unfortunately, LinkedIn's earnings announcement didn't end with the news of its recent financial performance. Expectations for the current quarter and year followed, and that's what set LinkedIn shares in a downward spiral.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shared guidance of $820 million for 2016's first quarter, and $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion for the year. By contrast, the Street had been expecting LinkedIn to generate about $867 million in Q1, and about $3.9 billion for the year; hence, the fire sale on its stock. 

However, that sell-off is your opportunity. Reporting guidance a few percentage points below overblown analyst revenue expectations-by all of 5% in Q1, and 7% for the year-will almost always initiate a short-term sell-off to some extent; that's to be expected.

But here's the thing: In Q1 of 2015, LinkedIn generated $637.7 million in sales, and $2.99 billion for the year. This means LinkedIn forecast a nearly 40% improvement in revenue this quarter, and a more than 20% jump year over year, and it lost about 50% in value year-to-date?

Going forward
Unlike Twitter, which genuinely warrants its poor stock performance because of stagnant user growth and a lack of engagement, LinkedIn continues to grow its member base, has highly engaged users, and -- most importantly, from an investor's perspective -- is boosting revenue quarter in and quarter out. Yet its stock price has been cut in half this year.

That sound you hear is the bell for  investors to stand up and take notice. With the recent pressure the global markets have been under of late, there are a lot of great opportunities for value investors with some patience. But there may not be another stock that has been so incredibly oversold -- for all the wrong reasons -- than LinkedIn.