What happened

Shares of streaming TV platform Roku (ROKU 2.94%) surged on Thursday, rising as much as 21.5%. At 11:40 a.m. EDT, shares were up 20.4%.

The stock's gain comes after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results. "Robust active account growth expanded the reach and scale of our TV streaming platform, while at the same time Roku captured a bigger share of TV advertising budgets and continued progress on monetization," said Roku in the company's second-quarter shareholder letter. 

Hulu streaming on a TV with a Roku device

Image source: Roku.

So what

Roku reported 57% year-over-year revenue growth to $156.8 million, crushing a consensus analyst forecast for second-quarter revenue of about $141 million. This was notably a significant acceleration from Roku's 36% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter. 

Roku's strong revenue growth was driven primarily by a 96% year-over-year increase in platform revenue. Player revenue rose 24% year over year.

On a per-share basis, Roku's net income came in at about breakeven, up from a loss of $3.18 in the year-ago quarter. This beat a consensus analyst estimate for a loss per share of $0.15. 

Now what

Looking ahead, management is optimistic. "We are raising our full year 2018 outlook and believe Roku is well-positioned to seize the significant opportunities being created by the transition to streaming," management said in the company's second-quarter shareholder letter.

Roku said it expects third-quarter revenue to be between $164 million and $172 million. For the full year, Roku expects revenue to be between $710 million and $730 million -- up from previous guidance for revenue between $685 million and $705 million and above a consensus analyst forecast for full-year revenue of $698 million.