Spotify (SPOT) Price Target Cut at BofA, Analyst Sees the Joe Rogan Controversy as a Rising Concern for Investors

Shares of Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) are down over 1% today after BofA analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich slashed the price target to $262.00 per share from the prior $352.00.

The analyst sees investors as fully focused on the upcoming analyst day which will be seen as a chance for the management to address some concerns and margin targets.

“We appreciate the company’s long term goals of 1bn users and 50mn creators and the necessity to invest to reach these targets, however we believe additional clarity on the underlying leverage in the core business would go a long way in assuaging these business model concerns. We look forward to the 2Q analyst event where SPOT will hopefully provide more detail on the company’s path to their long term 30-40% gross margin target,” Reif Ehrlich said in a client note.

Moreover, the analyst sees the Joe Rogan controversy as a rising risk for Spotify.

“We remain bullish on the potential of SPOT, which we think should benefit from an inflection in advertising and several new market launches. However, we also acknowledge the Joe Rogan controversy increasingly becoming risk. While it does not appear churn has meaningfully increased thus far, should this controversy continue or additional artists remove their music from the platform, it could potentially impact the fundamentals,” the analyst added.

Spotify stock price closed at $171.51 yesterday.

By Senad Karaahmetovic | [email protected]

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