OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Pandora Media’s stock retreated in after-hours trading Thursday after the Internet radio giant’s fourth-quarter earnings fell short of expectations and its CEO declined to comment on a report that the company is looking to sell itself.
Pandora’s stock jumped earlier in the day after The New York Times reported the company is working with Morgan Stanley to meet potential buyers. The report cited people who requested anonymity who had been briefed in the talks, which were described as preliminary.
CEO Brian McAndrews declined to comment on the report when asked in a conference call following the company’s quarterly earnings report.
“It’s a short and easy answer: We won’t comment,” McAndrews said. “We’re very confident in our ability to continue to drive significant value for our shareholders by executing the strategy you heard us talk about and that’s what we are focused on.”
The Oakland, California-based company on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $19.4 million, or 9 cents per share, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 4 cents per share.
The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 7 cents per share.
Pandora’s shares fell 52 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $8.57 after hours. They had closed the regular session with a gain of more than 8 percent, which still left them down about 61 percent since October.
The music streaming service said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 25 percent to $336.2 million, which topped Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $333.4 million. About 3 percentage points of the gain came from its acquisition of ticket-seller Ticketfly.
Listener hours increased 3 percent to 5.37 billion hours compared to a year ago, but the number of active listeners fell less than a percent to 81.1 million.
The company aims to add a subscription premium service later this year with more functionality. It also plans to expand abroad, which is partly why it bought technology and personnel from Rdio last year.
For the year, Pandora Media Inc. reported that its loss widened to $169.7 million, or 79 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $1.16 billion.
