Roku’s (ROKU) “Neutral” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by equities researchers at Wedbush in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $155.00 price target on the stock. Wedbush’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 1.01% from the stock’s previous close.

ROKU has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Roku from $126.00 to $172.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $165.00 target price (down from $167.00) on shares of Roku in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Roku from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of Roku from a “market outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, William Blair downgraded shares of Roku from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and nineteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Roku has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.17.

Roku Stock Down 0.0%

ROKU stock opened at $153.45 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $22.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.64 and a beta of 2.05. Roku has a 12-month low of $78.53 and a 12-month high of $159.89. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $152.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $130.65.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.47. Roku had a net margin of 6.82% and a return on equity of 13.73%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.07 earnings per share. Roku’s revenue was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Roku will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Roku news, SVP Christopher T. Handman sold 2,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.64, for a total value of $466,764.36. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 8,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,400,293.08. This trade represents a 25.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Dan Jedda sold 7,000 shares of Roku stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.81, for a total transaction of $1,097,670.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 74,811 shares in the company, valued at $11,731,112.91. The trade was a 8.56% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 112,285 shares of company stock worth $16,939,414. Company insiders own 13.45% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Roku in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,345,000. Moran Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Roku in the first quarter worth approximately $2,990,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Roku in the second quarter worth approximately $105,216,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Roku in the second quarter worth approximately $1,184,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Roku by 14.8% in the first quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 260,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,674,000 after purchasing an additional 33,593 shares during the period. 86.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Roku

Roku, Inc (NASDAQ: ROKU) operates a television streaming platform that connects consumers with digital entertainment. Its Roku operating system powers streaming players, Roku-branded televisions and smart-TV products made by licensing partners. The platform provides access to streaming services, live television, movies, music and other applications.

The company also operates The Roku Channel, its own ad-supported streaming service offering licensed and original content, including movies, television programs, live channels and premium subscription options.