Pandora shares fall on disappointing earnings (P)

Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Columbia Records

Music streaming service Pandora cut its full-year revenue forecast and reported lower-than-expected quarterly results amid intense competition.

The company's shares were down 5.5 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

Pandora cut its full-year revenue forecast range to $1.35 billion to $1.37 billion, from $1.39 billion to $1.41 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting full-year revenue of $1.40 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Pandora, which launched a new ad-free subscription service called "Pandora Plus" last month, faces competition from Sweden's Spotify, Apple's Apple Music, Google's Play Music and Amazon's Amazon Music Unlimited.

Pandora said on Tuesday it had 77.9 million active users in the third quarter, down from the 78.1 million in the second quarter, with total listener-hours of 5.4 billion.

Analysts on average had expected 78.5 million active listeners and 5.5 billion listener-hours, according to market research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

Spotify's chief executive, Daniel Ek, said last month that his service now had 40 million paying subscribers.

Apple said in September that Apple Music had about 17 million subscribers, up 4 million since April.

Pandora said ad revenue rose 7.5 percent to $273.72 million in the quarter, accounting for 77.8 percent of total revenue.

The company's net loss narrowed to $61.5 million, or 27 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $85.9 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Pandora lost 7 cents per share.

Pandora's revenue rose to $351.9 million from $311.6 million.

Analysts on average had expected a loss of 6 cents per share and revenue of $366.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Up to Tuesday's close at $12.18, Pandora's shares had fallen 9.2 percent since the start of the year. (Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)