Pandora Raises Full-Year Forecast on Higher Ad Sales

Online music streaming company Pandora Media 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 cater to a listener’s preferences, rose 9.5 pct to $15.20 in extended trading.

Pandora said active users rose about 4 percent year-over-year to 79.4 million in the second quarter. 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 added its automated advertising service to its smartphone service.

Ad revenue rose 30.2 percent to $230.9 million in the quarter, while subscription and other revenue rose to $54.6 million from $41.6 million.

Pandora gets about 81 percent of total revenue from advertising.

The company said it expects 2015 revenue of $1.175 billion-$1.185 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $1.16 billion-$1.18 billion

Pandora faces stiff competition from Spotify, Apple, Google and Amazon in the fast-growing music streaming business.

The company forecast third-quarter revenue of $310 million-$315 million, above average analysts’ estimate of $309.1 million.

The company’s net loss widened to $16.1 million, or eight cents per share, from $11.7 million, or six cents per share a year earlier. Excluding items, Pandora earned five cents per share. Revenue rose to $285.6 million from $218.9 million.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of two cents per share on revenue of $283.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Jennings and Rodney Joyce)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.