Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) Shares Up 2.3% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROKU) shot up 2.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $130.72 and last traded at $129.53. 2,043,896 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 3,274,496 shares. The stock had previously closed at $126.67.

Key Headlines Impacting Roku

Here are the key news stories impacting Roku this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Roku said CFO and COO Dan Jedda will speak at two upcoming industry conferences on May 12 and May 13, which can help keep investor attention on the company and give management a platform to discuss strategy and growth. Roku Chief Financial Officer to Present at Upcoming Conferences
• Neutral Sentiment: Several insider sale reports were published this week, including stock sales by a director and other executives, but these filings are routine disclosures and do not necessarily signal a change in business fundamentals. Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) Director Sells $244,220.00 in Stock
• Negative Sentiment: News reports alleged that Roku and TCL software updates have “bricked” some TVs, which could raise concerns about product quality, customer trust, and potential legal or repair costs if the claims gain traction. Lawsuit accuses Roku, TCL of ‘bricking’ TVs with defective software updates

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ROKU. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Roku from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Roku from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Roku from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Zacks Research cut shares of Roku from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Roku from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Roku presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.17.

Roku Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $19.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.39 and a beta of 2.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $102.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.52.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.23. Roku had a net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 7.64%. The company had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.19) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Roku, Inc. will post 2.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Charles Collier sold 20,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.23, for a total value of $2,551,435.74. Following the sale, the insider owned 7,700 shares in the company, valued at $956,571. This represents a 72.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Matthew C. Banks sold 725 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.52, for a total transaction of $91,002.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 6,222 shares in the company, valued at $780,985.44. This represents a 10.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 663,038 shares of company stock worth $70,956,545 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 13.45% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Roku

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Roku by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,998,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,301,557,000 after buying an additional 322,858 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Roku by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,860,149 shares of the company’s stock valued at $310,298,000 after buying an additional 274,024 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Roku by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,464,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,389,000 after buying an additional 168,214 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP increased its stake in Roku by 352.3% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 1,650,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $165,259,000 after buying an additional 1,285,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Roku by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,509,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,786,000 after buying an additional 12,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.30% of the company’s stock.

Roku Company Profile

Roku, Inc (NASDAQ: ROKU) is a technology company that develops and operates a proprietary streaming platform designed to deliver entertainment content to consumers via internet-connected devices and smart televisions. Since its inception in 2002 in California, Roku has focused on simplifying access to streaming services for viewers worldwide. The company’s platform enables users to discover, access and manage a wide array of over-the-top content from major streaming services, free ad-supported channels and niche providers.

At the core of Roku’s product lineup are a range of streaming players and sticks, which connect to televisions via HDMI and deliver the Roku OS experience.