Pandora Posts Strong Q2 Results on Ad Sales, Increased Subscribers

Online music streaming company Pandora Media Inc raised its full year forecast and reported better-than-expected second quarter revenue as it signed up more subscribers and increased its advertising revenue.

Shares of the company, which uses streaming software that can predict a listener's preferences, rose 3.7 percent to $14.40 (roughly Rs. 920) in extended trading.

Pandora said active users rose about 4 percent to 79.4 million in the second quarter, from a year earlier. Total listener hours rose to 5.30 billion from 5.04 billion.

Listening hours have risen steadily since Pandora launched a smartphone and tablet app. In June it made it added its automated advertising service to its smartphone service.

Ad revenue rose 30.2 percent to $230.9 million (roughly Rs. 1,477 crores), in the second quarter ended June 30, while subscription and other revenue rose to $54.6 million (roughly Rs. 349 crores) from $41.6 million (roughly Rs. 266 crores).

Pandora gets about 81 percent of total revenue from advertising.

The company said it expects 2015 revenue of $1.175 billion - $1.185 billion (roughly Rs. 7,518 crores - 7,583 crores), compared with its previous forecast of $1.16 billion - $1.18 billion (roughly Rs. 7,423 crores - Rs. 7,551 crores)

Pandora faces stiff competition from Spotify, Apple Inc's Beats online streaming service, Google Inc, and Amazon.com Inc in the fast-growing music streaming business.

The company forecast third quarter revenue of $310 million-$315 million (roughly Rs. 1,983 crores - Rs. 2,015 crores), above average analysts' estimate of $309.1 million (roughly Rs. 1,978 crores).

The company's net loss widened to $16.1 million (roughly Rs. 103 crores), or 8 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $11.7 million (roughly Rs. 75 crores), or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Pandora earned 5 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $285.6 million (roughly Rs. 1,827 crores) from $218.9 million (roughly Rs. 1,400crores).

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 2 cents per share on revenue of $283.1 million (roughly Rs. 1,811 crores), according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

© Thomson Reuters 2015