The 20 percent plunge in LinkedIn's stock price on Friday was not so shocking, according to UBS analyst Eric Sheridan, who said it was a sign of growing pains.
UBS has a 12-month buy rating and a 12-month price target of $230 for the stock, which was trading at around $201.80 on Friday afternoon following its weak guidance for the second quarter and the year.
"If you take a look simply at the cut in their forward profitability guidance, the EBITDA, it's a cut of about 20 percent; the stock is down 20 percent so from that perspective it's relatively fair," Sheridan said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Alley."
Read MoreIs social media's bubble bursting?
He estimated that 80 percent of the cut in estimates was tied to foreign exchanges and the integration of lynda.com, the online education tool recently acquired by LinkedIn.
"Those are unlikely to repeat in 2016 so the conversations we are having about investors is how much of the core business here is actually hurt or damaged going forward," said Sheridan. "We think there is some miscues from operation, but the core philosophy, the core what's going on at LinkedIn, really isn't much changed."
Share tumbled after LinkedIn on Thursday forecast 2015 profit of $1.90 per share, excluding items, on revenue of about $2.90 billion. It had earlier forecast earnings of $2.95 per share on revenue of $2.93 billion to $2.95 billion.
Read More
A report released by UBS on Thursday indicates that LinkedIn has the possibility to benefit from growing mobile engagement, the expansion of sales solution, and the Chinese market.
LinkedIn has now surpassed 350 million members, compared to more than 300 million members from the last quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015.
The core of LinkedIn being the same, Sheridan said, the disappointing guidance is tied to the company expanding.
"There is no doubt that LinkedIn is going through their growing pain," he said.
—Reuters contributed to this story.