MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to play fundamental roles in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Previous miRNA array data showed that miR-519a was upregulated in HCC tissues compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues. However, the functional role of miR-519a in HCC remains unexplored. In this study, we demonstrated that the expression of miR-519a was elevated in both HCC tissues and cell lines. Clinical association analysis revealed that high expression of miR-519a was correlated with adverse clinicopathological characteristics including large tumor size, high Edmondson-Steiner grading, advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) tumor stage and venous infiltration. Furthermore, high expression of miR-519a conferred a reduced 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival of HCC patients. Moreover, we disclosed that miR-519a overexpression promoted, but miR-519a silencing reduced, HCC cell proliferation and cell cycle progression in vitro. Notably, we identified phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) as a direct downstream target and functional mediator of miR-519a in HCC cells. Mechanistically, phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway, downstream of PTEN, is essential for the functional roles of miR-519a in HCC cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that miR-519a promotes tumor growth of HCC by targeting PTEN-mediated PI3K/AKT pathway, and potentially serves as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.