Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on ROKU. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $140.00 target price (up from $135.00) on shares of Roku in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Roku from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Roku from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Arete Research set a $132.00 price objective on shares of Roku and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Roku from $128.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $127.79.

Roku Stock Up 2.3%

ROKU opened at $111.87 on Tuesday. Roku has a twelve month low of $57.01 and a twelve month high of $116.66. The company has a fifty day moving average of $95.03 and a 200-day moving average of $99.77. The stock has a market cap of $16.49 billion, a PE ratio of 196.27 and a beta of 2.00.

Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.25. Roku had a net margin of 1.87% and a return on equity of 3.40%. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.24) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Roku will post -0.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Roku

In other Roku news, insider Gilbert Fuchsberg sold 3,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.57, for a total transaction of $310,602.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 60,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,777,779.92. The trade was a 5.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony J. Wood sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.79, for a total transaction of $4,539,500.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 426,375 shares of company stock valued at $43,390,928 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 13.98% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Roku

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ROKU. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Roku by 680.0% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Aventura Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Roku during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Roku in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Roku in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Roku in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 86.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Roku News

Here are the key news stories impacting Roku this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Roku announced it surpassed 100 million streaming households, a major scale milestone that strengthens its ad inventory and pricing leverage as CTV advertising grows. BusinessWire: 100M households
• Positive Sentiment: Media and analyst coverage highlights expanding ad revenue and Roku’s ad engine — Platform/ad revenue accounted for the bulk of recent revenue, reinforcing the thesis that Roku is becoming a pure-play CTV ad monetization story. Yahoo: Ad engine expands
• Positive Sentiment: Product fixes and OS updates (restoring offline local-TV access, Instant Resume, other QoL features) should help user satisfaction and platform engagement, supporting ad fill and retention. Yahoo: Offline local TV restored
• Neutral Sentiment: Roku will report Q1 results on April 30 — a near-term catalyst that will determine whether ad growth and margin trends match current optimism. Earnings date
• Neutral Sentiment: Sell-side support remains mixed but generally positive (multiple firms with Buy/Outperform and higher targets), which supports investor interest but leaves valuation sensitivity if execution slips. MarketBeat analyst roundup
• Negative Sentiment: Several insiders sold shares this week (CEO Anthony Wood, CFO Dan Jedda and other executives) under Rule 10b5‑1 plans — the volume of sales may concern some investors even if pre‑arranged. SEC Form 4 (CEO)
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded Roku from “strong-buy” to “hold,” which could blunt momentum from bullish headlines. Zacks downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/employment risk flagged by a discrimination suit report could create headline risk if it escalates. Discrimination suit article

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.