Pandora Media Inc (P) Stock Shoots Higher on Q4 Update, Layoffs

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Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) shot higher on Friday morning on a mixed set of announcements. While Pandora said it would top its revenue forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter, it also said it would cut costs by laying off U.S. workers. Pandora stock was up 9% on Friday in response.

Pandora Media Inc (P) Stock Shoots Higher on Earnings Update, Layoffs

Pandora said its advertising efforts had paid off, lifting sales over its previous forecast for between $362 million to $374 million.

Specifically, CEO Tim Westergren pointed out successes with in-app promotions, an aggressive approach to ad load and partnership activity with music labels and publishers.

Westergren said the company would be making all of those areas an increased priority in 2017.

The flip side to the announcement was the job cuts. Pandora plans on laying off 7% of its U.S. workforce (excluding Ticketfly, its recent $450 million acquisition) by fiscal Q1. Said Westergren:

“The commitment to cost discipline will allow us to invest more heavily in product development and monetization and build on the foundations of our strategic investments.”

Pandora’s announcement, out Thursday night, also boasted that the service’s subscriber base has reached 4.3 million paid subscribers, which included a 375,000-net-subscriber addition to its Plus service. That’s encouraging news for Pandora, which has had to contend with increasing competition from the likes of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Spotify.

Pandora stock is rebounding after a roughly monthlong lull that itself followed a huge surge in shares on reports of interest from Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI). However, talks on that front have died down, leaving investors increasingly doubtful that a deal is imminent.

Pandora stock chart

Pandora’s surge today will have shares bouncing hard back above both its 50- and 200-day moving averages, just a few days after P stock dipped below both lines of resistance.

As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/01/pandora-media-inc-p-stock-q4-layoffs/.

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