Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) Receives “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Benchmark in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $115.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark’s price target suggests a potential upside of 99.17% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ROKU. Oppenheimer cut shares of Roku from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Roku from $110.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Roku from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of Roku from $120.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Roku in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Roku presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.76.

Roku Price Performance

ROKU traded down $0.95 on Friday, reaching $57.74. 1,014,406 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,639,339. The stock has a market cap of $8.29 billion, a PE ratio of -11.52 and a beta of 1.66. Roku has a twelve month low of $51.62 and a twelve month high of $108.84. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $67.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.07.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.55) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.65) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $984.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $967.72 million. Roku had a negative net margin of 20.36% and a negative return on equity of 29.21%. Roku’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($1.70) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Roku will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Charles Collier sold 4,182 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $271,830.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,474 shares in the company, valued at approximately $550,810. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Roku news, CEO Anthony J. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.64, for a total transaction of $2,466,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 141,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,930,039.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Charles Collier sold 4,182 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $271,830.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,474 shares in the company, valued at $550,810. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,545 shares of company stock worth $4,364,035. 13.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Roku

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Roku by 3.3% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Roku by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 12,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Roku by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 21,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,987,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Roku by 8.6% in the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $235,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Roku by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 50,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,415,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.30% of the company’s stock.

Roku Company Profile

Roku, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates a TV streaming platform in the United states and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Platform and Devices. Its streaming platform allows users to find and access TV shows, movies, news, sports, and others. The Platform segment offers digital advertising, including direct and programmatic video advertising, media and entertainment promotional spending, and related services; and streaming services distribution, such as subscription and transaction revenue shares, and sale of premium subscriptions and branded app buttons on remote controls.