Spotify Falls Below Listing Price for First Time

(Bloomberg) -- Spotify Technology SA is singing a tune reminiscent of the Monday blues.

For the first time since going public in April, shares of the world’s largest paid music streaming service closed below their $132 per share debut. Spotify fell to a record low $126.75 on Monday, before ending the day at $131.31.

While some tech companies have defied this sector’s recent rout, Stockholm-based Spotify peaked in July. Weakness across technology has been a factor, but recent concerns from management about margin growth have worsened broader anxieties.

Spotify shares are valued on the basis of growth in Premium Subscribers, but market expansion and research and development hiring are drivers of that growth, Raymond James analyst Justin Patterson wrote in a Nov. 1 note. "If constraints on either persist, that could create risk to subscriber growth projections," he said.

But management has been devoted to finding avenues of growth. Among them, a partnership with Samsung Electronics Co., in an effort to lure more subscribers to its platform and away from Apple Music, and recent plans to directly connect with artists.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamaron Leach in New York at kleach6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.