JPMorgan Chase & Co. Begins Coverage on Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU)

Equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) in a research note issued on Monday. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 1.03% from the company’s previous close.

ROKU has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective (down from $167.00) on shares of Roku in a report on Friday, August 14th. Pivotal Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $140.00) on shares of Roku in a report on Friday, May 1st. Piper Sandler downgraded Roku from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $148.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Benchmark raised their price target on Roku from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Fox Advisors set a $157.00 price target on Roku in a research report on Friday, July 17th. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Roku presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.17.

Roku Stock Performance

NASDAQ ROKU traded up $0.87 during trading on Monday, hitting $158.36. 37,837 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,585,271. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.67 and a beta of 2.01. Roku has a 12-month low of $78.53 and a 12-month high of $159.69. The business has a 50 day moving average of $144.45 and a 200-day moving average of $120.11.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Roku will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Roku

In other Roku news, insider Mustafa Ozgen sold 10,194 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.00, for a total value of $1,467,936.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 19,185 shares in the company, valued at $2,762,640. This represents a 34.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Gilbert Fuchsberg sold 10,719 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $1,607,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 40,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,057,000. The trade was a 20.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 162,452 shares of company stock valued at $22,052,982 in the last quarter. 13.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Roku

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in Roku by 13,741.7% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 20,912,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,888,886,000 after buying an additional 20,761,653 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Roku by 10.6% during the fourth 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 holdings in shares of Roku by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,464,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $267,389,000 after buying an additional 168,214 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Roku by 229.5% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,038,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,868,000 after buying an additional 1,419,772 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Roku by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,565,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,090,000 after acquiring an additional 290,200 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.30% of the company’s stock.

About Roku

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.