UPDATE: Pacific Crest Raises PT on Pandora With Improved Monetization

In a report published Thursday. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves increased

PT from $25 to $32. Hargreaves noted that mobile advertising revenue growth is expected to grow to $577M in FY2015, $9M above previous estimates. Pacific crest reported that this large estimate increase is based on mobile ad RPM growth estimates. 2015 mobile ad RPM estimates moved from $42.38 to $43.09 and 2018 estimates largely increased from $57.50 to $70. The analyst commented, "We believe the company is on the cusp of an inflection in monetization as it begins to more materially take share of local radio advertising dollars, facilitated by the company's integrations with STRATA and Mediaocean and its expansion of its local sales force." Hargreaves met with Dominic Paschel, Pandora's VP of IR and Corporate Finance, and expressed a positive outlook for improving monetization in the next couple of year in the note. The analyst believes iTunes radio will have a modest impact on Pandora and estimated $25M is audio sales from Q1 to Q2. Pacific Crest increased 2014 subscriber estimates from $3.8M to $4.2M and subscriber revenue estimates from $154M to $170M. The analyst's 2013 revenue estimates remain constant. Pandora closed at $26.70 on Wednesday and is currently trading +1.22%.