Pandora Punished For Big Q3 Earnings Miss

Pandora Media Inc P shares got punished after reporting a third-quarter earnings and sales miss.

The streaming music pioneer reported a third-quarter earnings loss of 27 cents a share, missing estimates by 19 cents. Sales came in $28 million short of estimates at $352 million.

"After just a short time here at Pandora, it's clear to me we have a tremendous opportunity to meet the full spectrum of our listeners' and advertisers' needs," said Roger Lynch, president and CEO of Pandora. "We have significant scale, distribution and products that deliver a superior listening experience. We will leverage these strengths to become a more integral part of our listeners' lives and reinforce our position as the definitive source for audio advertising."

A bright spot for the company was total subscriber growth, which grew 29 percent year over year to 5.19 million.

Q3 Highlights

• Subscription revenue grew 50 percent year-over-year;
• Ad RPM hit an all-time high of $70.27 in the quarter, a 21 percent increase year over year; and
• Pandora premium paid subscribers surpassed 1 million in October.

Shares fell 6 percent after the release, trading around $7 at time of publication. Click here for the full results.

Image credit: frankieleon, flickr