'Listening For Growth' At Pandora

In a report published Thursday, BMO Capital Markets analysts maintained an Outperform rating on

. Pandora is scheduled to report its 1Q15 results on April 23 and host a conference call. The analysts expect the company to have benefited from "stronger listening hours as well as the plethora of new devices activated recently." BMO Capital Markets expects Pandora to report 1Q15 revenues and adjusted EBITDA at $223 million and ($31.8) million, respectively, up significantly from $180 million and ($8.3) million reported for the year-ago quarter. The EPS estimate for the quarter is at ($0.17), versus ($0.13) a year ago and the consensus figure of ($0.17). "In the near term, we expect the company to benefit from a broader and deeper expansion into local advertising markets as it capitalizes on the strength of its radio listening share and its ability to provide deeper analysis of listener demographics and engagement," the analysts wrote. "We expect the company to provide incremental data on how many local markets it is selling directly to, while the expansion of its sales and marketing expense could provide a glimpse into how aggressively it is adding staff overall," the report said. The analysts expect the company to report advertising revenue per thousand hours (RPM) of $34 for 1Q15, up from $29.46 in the year-ago quarter and $24.85 two years ago. "We believe the company continues to focus on growing listening hours." "Longer term, Pandora is gradually moving into automobiles, where more than half of all radio listening occurs in the U.S. This move should also drive listener hours growth and stronger engagement overall, subsequently providing the opportunity to further drive revenue growth," the report added.