Piper Sandler Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU)

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $65.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $81.00. Piper Sandler’s price target suggests a potential upside of 14.02% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $89.00 price objective on shares of Roku in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Roku from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Roku in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Roku from $110.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Benchmark cut their price target on Roku from $115.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.81.

Roku Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ROKU traded down $5.80 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $57.01. The company had a trading volume of 6,713,274 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,653,854. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.59. Roku has a one year low of $51.62 and a one year high of $108.84. The company has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of -11.45 and a beta of 1.66.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported ($0.35) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by $0.29. The business had revenue of $881.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $843.54 million. Roku had a negative net margin of 20.36% and a negative return on equity of 29.21%. Roku’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.38) EPS. Research analysts expect that Roku will post -2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Roku news, CEO Anthony J. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 141,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,930,039.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Jeffrey M. Blackburn bought 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $63.96 per share, with a total value of $511,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 8,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $511,680. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Anthony J. Wood sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.64, for a total value of $2,466,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 141,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,930,039.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 54,545 shares of company stock valued at $4,364,035 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Roku by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,853,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,086,533,000 after purchasing an additional 380,409 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Roku by 85.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,441,349 shares of the company’s stock worth $666,465,000 after purchasing an additional 4,363,754 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Roku by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 7,349,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $478,939,000 after buying an additional 1,457,925 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Roku by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,543,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,516,000 after acquiring an additional 653,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Roku during the fourth quarter worth approximately $90,386,000. 86.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.