Spotify Officially Begins Streaming on the NYSE

Spotify (NYSE:SPOT), the music streaming service, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday (April 3), with its share price opening at $165.90.

The stock opened at a 28 percent premium over its reference price, which was set at $132. The company’s market cap rose to $30 billion.

With 157 million active monthly users in 65 countries and 71 million paid subscribers as of December 2017, Spotify is one of the largest music streaming services worldwide.

Many analysts gave a positive ranking to Spotify, including RBC Capital Market Analyst Mark Mahaney, who gave the stock an “outperform” rating and set $220 as the price target.

Mahaney said that the future of music industry is streaming and that RBC estimates the total worldwide addressable market at $125 billion.

“Very high global aided brand awareness, relatively high customer satisfaction scores and superior data-driven personalization all combine to help Spotify maintain its leadership position,” Mahaney said.

In its 2018 financial outlook, released on March 28, Spotify said that it expects 198 to 208 million active users, which would be 26 percent to 32 percent year-on-year growth. The company also predicted a total revenue of $4.9 to $5.3 billion.

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, said in a blog post that the company is not raising capital and that its shareholders and employees have been free to buy and sell the stock for years.

“So while tomorrow puts us on a bigger stage, it doesn’t change who we are, what we are about, or how we operate,” Ek said.

Spotify closed Tuesday’s trading period at $149.01, which is an 11 percent decrease from its one-day high of $169.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.