Why it's happening: Quarterly revenue rose 30% year over year to $285.6 million, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 29% to $16.3 million. That translated to adjusted net income of $11.6 million, or $0.05 per share.
Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of just $283.1 million, and adjusted earnings of only $0.02 per share. To their credit, the results were also above Pandora's own guidance, which called for revenue of $280 million to $285 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $8 million to $13 million.
In particular, driving Pandora's strength was a 37% increase in mobile revenue to $229.7 million. Advertising revenue also rose 30% year over year to $230.9 million, bolstered by 67% growth in local advertising to $58.9 million.
"Our advertising investments, particularly in local, are paying off," added Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews, noting that local ad revenue reached an all-time high.
If that weren't enough, Pandora's active listeners grew 3.9% year over year to 79.4 million, helping it inch ever closer to its long-term goal of 100 million. Listener hours climbed even faster at 5% to 5.3 billion -- and this despite worries from some analysts of pressure resulting from Apple, which notably offered a three-month trial promotion of Apple Music during the quarter. To the contrary, McAndrews told analysts during the subsequent conference call that Pandora has seen "no impact" since the launch of Apple Music at the end of June. And though it's still early, McAndrews says, Pandora doesn't "expect any long-term meaningful impact, either."
Finally, Pandora also increased its revenue guidance for the full year, and now expects 2015 sales of $1.175 billion to $1.185 billion. Three months ago, Pandora's outlook called for full-year revenue of $1.16 billion to $1.18 billion. That brings the midpoint of Pandora's range above Wall Street's expectations for 2015 sales of $1.17 billion.
All in all, this was another solid quarter from Pandora as it outperformed on virtually all metrics. As the company continues to add loyal listeners, improve monetization quarter after quarter, and enjoy technological trends favoring its Internet-connected, streaming music model, it's unsurprising the market is bidding up shares so aggressively today.
