Pandora Media stock plunged as much as 26 percent on Friday as things went from bad to worse after its third quarter earnings report.
The company revised its fourth quarter revenue forecast downward, to a range of $365 million to $380 million, Pandora CFO Naveen Chopra revealed on a conference call with investors Thursday evening. That is well below the consensus estimate of $413 million before the report, according to FactSet.
Pandora also reported weak revenue for the third quarter and announced plans to sell about 62 million shares of common stock after Thursday’s close. Four firms downgraded the company’s stock in response, lowering expectations for the company from “buy” to “hold.”
The shares were down 25 percent to $5.52 at 10 a.m. ET in New York after falling as low as $5.42 shortly after the open of trading.
“We have been trying to stick with Pandora through its multiple management changes and multi-year turnaround process,” J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note. “However, near-term advertising trends are deteriorating and we believe it will take time for the company to
realize the benefits of its ad tech investments.”
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Stifel Nicolaus and FBR joined J.P. Morgan in revising ratings of Pandora’s stock lower.
“We are a bit taken back as the company appears much further behind in its ad tech product map than we have appreciated and the company’s deficiencies appear more severe,” SunTrust analyst Matthew Thornton wrote in a note.
Pandora’s revenue in the last quarter was $379 million, below Wall Street’s expectations of $380.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters. Advertising revenue, which accounts for the bulk of Pandora’s overall revenue, grew 1 percent year over year but missed analyst expectations. Pandora reported $275.7 million in advertising revenue, which also came in below analyst expectations of $289.3 million, according to StreetAccount.
“There’s no silver bullet that’s going to come in and solve these problems,” CEO Roger Lynch said in a conference call with investors. He said investments in ad targeting and reporting technology would start to have an effect throughout 2018.
The stock was already struggling this year, falling 43 percent for 2017 through Thursday’s close, according to FactSet.
Pandora loses a quarter of its value after abysmal revenue forecast