Investors tuned into Pandora on Monday — pushing its shares to a record high after the Internet radio company reported robust December subscriber growth.
Also propelling shares of the Oakland, Calif.-based company was a new in-car advertising strategy.
In heavy trading, shares hit an all-time high of $32.45 before easing to close at $31.49, up 14.1 percent.
Pandora reported that active listeners rose to 76.2 million in December, a 3.8 million, or 5.2 percent, jump — its second-largest increase. They are up 13 percent in the last year.
Listener hours also jumped 13 percent, to 1.58 billion, from a year earlier, the company said.
On the in-car advertising front, Pandora signed new marketing deals with BP, Ford, State Farm and Taco Bell. Drivers will hear just one or two ads during their commute, compared to Pandora’s typical ad load of about four minutes. Broadcast radio carries around 13 minutes in that same period.
Investors’ move into Pandora shares — they are up 58 percent in the last six months — dispels fears that Apple’s iTunes Radio would destroy Pandora’s primary business model of ad-supported online radio.
The company’s share of the total radio audience rose to 8.6 percent; it has a 70 percent share of the Internet radio market, according to Needham & Co.
The holiday period is typically strong for Pandora, since people are home and looking for Christmas music and party tunes. It is also a period when consumers get new devices and load up with fresh apps.
“Pandora is not reliant on cookies, which are under pressure from privacy advocates,” Needham’s Laura Martin wrote in a recent report