Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROKU) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $75.69, but opened at $80.17. Roku shares last traded at $80.91, with a volume of 2,249,983 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ROKU has been the subject of a number of research reports. Guggenheim upgraded Roku from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Roku in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Roku from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $93.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Moffett Nathanson raised Roku from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Roku from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Roku currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.62.

Roku Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $12.30 billion, a PE ratio of -69.76 and a beta of 2.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $73.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.60.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.35) by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Roku had a negative net margin of 4.42% and a negative return on equity of 7.22%. Roku’s quarterly revenue was up 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($2.33) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Roku, Inc. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Matthew C. Banks sold 8,693 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.44, for a total transaction of $621,027.92. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $518,940.16. This represents a 54.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Charles Collier sold 15,454 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $1,159,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,000. The trade was a 98.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 88,550 shares of company stock valued at $6,621,873. 13.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Roku

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its position in Roku by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,570,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,087,824,000 after purchasing an additional 244,793 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Roku by 1.3% during the second quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 12,716,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $762,096,000 after purchasing an additional 159,785 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Roku during the third quarter valued at $129,015,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake in Roku by 126.1% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,535,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $114,646,000 after buying an additional 856,401 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Roku by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 955,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,373,000 after buying an additional 30,038 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.30% of the company’s stock.

About Roku

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.