New York, Feb 27, 2026, 06:30 ET — Premarket
- Spotify shares eased in premarket after a sharp jump on Thursday tied to an Arete Research upgrade
- Arete pointed to improving Premium margins and played down AI disruption risk
- Traders are watching Friday’s U.S. data and the next earnings window later this spring
Spotify Technology S.A. shares were down 0.3% in premarket trading at $494.06, after climbing 7.0% on Thursday to close at $495.65. 1
The move put the spotlight back on a familiar argument for Spotify: can it keep pushing prices and still grow, while protecting gross margin in a streaming market that rarely stays calm for long. 2
That debate is landing in a market already jumpy about artificial intelligence as a business disruptor. “There continues to be this… back and forth” over who gets hurt and who wins from AI, Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, told Reuters. 3
Arete Research upgraded Spotify to Buy from Neutral and set a $586 price target, saying Premium gross margins are getting better and that the risk of AI disruption is “minimal,” according to a report carried by TheFly. The firm also expects an 18-month cadence of “modest” price hikes. 4
Spotify rose 6.99% in the prior session, with the stock trading between $464.05 and $498.99. 5
The Arete move marked a cut in the price target to $586 from $680, TipRanks data showed, even as the firm raised its rating. 6
Spotify’s last earnings update, posted on Feb. 10, showed Premium subscribers up 10% to 290 million and monthly active users up 11% to 751 million, while gross margin improved to 33.1% and operating income reached 701 million euros, the company said. Founder Daniel Ek also flagged “AI” among the “next wave of technology shifts” that could reshape how people discover audio and media. 7
More recently, Spotify has been expanding beyond music and podcasts, including efforts to deepen its audiobooks push and sell physical books in-app through a Bookshop.org partnership, a move that Reuters has described as part of a broader fight with big tech rivals such as Apple and Amazon. 8
Outside the company, sentiment has been choppy in tech after Nvidia’s results failed to satisfy a market “priced for perfection,” while U.S. stock futures were mixed, Reuters reported. 9
Still, the near-term risk for Spotify is straightforward: price increases can lift revenue and margins, but they can also trigger churn if consumers balk, especially if competitors lean on bundles or hardware ecosystems to keep users sticky. AI-related copyright and catalog issues could also flare up at the wrong time, and advertising remains sensitive to broader economic growth.
For the next clear checkpoint, investors are looking toward Spotify’s first-quarter results, expected around April 28, according to MarketScreener’s calendar. 10
