Shares of leading streaming-TV platform provider Roku (ROKU -10.29%) have been soaring recently. The stock is up more than 70% over the past 12 months and has climbed 24% in the last 30 days alone.
Roku offers investors a unique way to buy an asset benefiting from increased connected TV viewership amid coronavirus-related lockdowns and growing advertiser spend as marketers ramp up spending after a brutal hit to economic activity earlier this year. More importantly, however, Roku bulls are buying into a rapidly growing business and a massive market opportunity.
Here's a closer look at some of the metrics that have investors so excited about this growth stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
73% revenue growth
In Roku's most recent quarter, revenue soared 73% year over year to more than $450 million. Fueling most of this growth was a 78% jump in platform revenue, which primarily includes revenue from the company's share of transactions, subscriptions, and ads on its platform. Highlighting the segment's importance to Roku's business, platform revenue represented over 70% of the quarter's total revenue.
46 million active accounts
Roku now has 46 million active accounts using its platform. This is up 43% year over year, driven by strong sales of Roku player devices and Roku-powered smart TVs in both the U.S. and abroad. Player unit sales jumped 57% year over year during the quarter -- the strongest growth rate in player sales the company has seen in more than seven years.
This account growth will, of course, translate to substantial platform spend over the long haul. Average revenue per Roku user was $27 in Q3 2020 -- up 20% year over year.
The Roku Channel reaches 54 million people
The key to Roku's growth story is the success of its Roku Channel -- an app on its platform that aggregates content from third-party publishers into an easy-to-use channel. The native channel now reaches an estimated 54 million people, with streaming hours growing faster year over year than any other channel available on the Roku platform.
The Roku Channel. Image source: Roku.
A $60 billion market opportunity
Despite the company's recent strong growth, the streaming-TV platform may just be getting started.
Roku's market opportunity to grow sales in TV is huge, particularly in TV advertising. With linear TV viewership and marketing dollars steadily shifting toward connected TV, ad dollars spent on traditional TV represent Roku's opportunity to take share.
eMarketer estimates that ad spend on traditional TV ad spots in 2020 will be $60 billion, with only $9 billion of this spend occurring on CTV -- yet CTV ad spend is forecast to grow 28% this year, while traditional TV ad spend is declining.
As the leading streaming-TV platform, Roku is perfectly positioned to continue taking wallet share from marketers as they move from linear to connected TV. When this market opportunity meets strong top-line growth and momentum in platform usage and user engagement, the company's leadership position seems stronger than ever. No wonder investors are piling into the stock.
