(Reuters) -Spotify forecast third-quarter profit below Wall Street estimates on Tuesday as higher taxes related to employee salaries outweigh upbeat demand for its premium music-streaming plans, sending its shares down 5% in premarket trading.
Investors are closely watching the Swedish company's profitability after price hikes, cost cuts and subscriber gains in recent years helped it achieve its first annual profit in 2024.
Spotify said it expects operating income of 485 million euros ($561.05 million)
in the current quarter, below an estimate of 562 million euros, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its third-quarter monthly active users (MAU) forecast of 710 million was in line with estimates, while its prediction for a 5 million increase in premium subscribers to 281 million was above a Visible Alpha estimate of 279 million.
Its board has approved a $1 billion increase to its share repurchase program, raising the total authorization to $2 billion, with $1.9 billion available for buybacks through April 2026.
Tough competition in music streaming and podcasts from rivals from Apple and Amazon has also prompted Spotify to increase marketing, which contributed to an 8% increase in operating expenses in the April-to-June quarter.
Premium subscribers rose 12% to 276 million in the second quarter, compared with a Visible Alpha estimate of 273 million. Its MAU net additions of 18 million brought the total to 696 million, exceeding expectations.
Second-quarter revenue rose 10% to 4.19 billion euros ($4.85 billion), but fell short of an estimate of 4.26 billion euros. Spotify said unfavorable currency movements reduced year-over-year total revenue growth by about 440 basis points in the reported quarter.
It forecast third-quarter revenue of 4.2 billion euros, below the estimate of 4.48 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8645 euros)
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
