Pandora (P) Rising On Analyst Upgrade, Partnership Deals

Shares of Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE:P) have gone up nearly 6.6% so far in this week. The stock primarily received a boost from an upgrade by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) at the beginning of the week. Thereafter, the company revealed a couple of strategic advancements, a partnership with Uber and another with Jam Productions, which helped to maintain the momentum.

Though rumors of a buyout are still doing the rounds, Morgan Stanley updated its rating to ‘Overweight’. It stated that “First, Pandora's core radio business, driven by highly engaged listeners, is growing and profitable. This profitability was not clear until the end of last year, after the Copyright Royalty Board set its cost structure through 2020. Second, after 15 years of digital indigestion we think the music industry has found its growth strategy - subscription on-demand and Pandora is positioned to help drive that growth as a result of its leading market share and high engagement in its core radio business."

Well, there is no denying that Pandora holds a prime position in the online radio market. But even then the company was struggling to make profits. In such a scenario, collaboration deals with the likes of Uber and Jam Productions come as a breather.

Pandora is strategically making headway in the automotive market by integrating its services with the Uber app for drivers in the United States, Australia and New Zealand markets. This will boost the demand for the company’s core radio service as Uber has over 450K active drivers in the U.S. itself.

At the same time, the partnership with Jam Productions, a prominent concert promoter in the U.S. will add to the company’s evolving Ticketfly Platform. As per the deal, Ticketfly will become the exclusive ticketing provider for select Jam events in addition to providing tickets for three Chicago venues (Riviera Theatre, Vic Theatre and Park West).

Partnerships such as these give Pandora an edge over its peers like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) , Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) , Spotify, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube and Tidal, all of which are striving to strengthen their presence in the industry.

Currently, Pandora carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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