Shares of Roku (ROKU +3.84%) surged on Friday, climbing more than 30%. The stock's enormous gains came as the streaming-TV platform specialist reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and provided robust third-quarter guidance. Despite the stock's big gain already since its earnings report, several analysts think shares could soar much higher.
Indeed, two analysts set their 12-month price targets for the growth stock at $95 following the earnings report -- a price that would translate to about 13% more upside from where the stock is trading at the time of this writing.
Let's look at Roku's second-quarter update and what's behind these two bullish analysts' price targets for the stock.
NASDAQ: ROKU
Key Data Points
Accelerating growth
Roku's second-quarter revenue of about $847 million was far above the $773 million in quarterly revenue the consensus analyst forecast called for. More importantly, Roku's year-over-year revenue growth rate of 11% for the period was much higher than the 1% growth the company achieved in Q1.
Further, the quarter's good performance was driven by both of Roku's business segments: platform revenue and devices revenue. Platform revenue rose 11% year over year to about $745 million, and devices revenue increased about 9% year over year to approximately $103 million.
"We delivered solid results in Q2, growing scale, engagement, and monetization," said Roku management in the company's second-quarter shareholder letter, highlighting how well-rounded the quarter was. Active accounts rose 16% year over year to a record 73.5 million as streaming hours increased 21% year over year to 25.1 billion.
In another nod to the company's accelerating momentum, the company added 1.9 million new active accounts over the last three months. This is more than Roku added in both the year-ago quarter and in the first quarter of 2023.
The path to $95
With such a strong report behind it, it's no surprise analysts are racing to lift their price targets for the stock. So what's behind two of the most bullish analysts' revised targets for the stock? Susquehanna analyst Shyam Patil and JPMorgan analyst Cory Carpenter both lifted their 12-month price targets for the stock to $95.
Carpenter's note to investors explained that the company's strong revenue growth, guidance, and expectations for positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in 2024 continue to position the investment as a good way for investors to capture some upside from an eventual recovery in the advertising market.
Meanwhile, Patil praised the company's execution on its cost-cutting plan. To this end, management said it expects its year-over-year growth rate operating expenses to continue moderating in Q3, with Q3's growth rate likely coming in lower than Q2's.
Finally, both analysts were encouraged by Roku's third-quarter guidance. Roku said it expects third-quarter revenue of $815 million -- $5 million above analysts' average forecast. This would compare to third-quarter 2022 revenue of about $761 million.
Management said its outlook for Q2 reflected an expectation of another quarter of an uncertain and weak market for advertising overall. Management noted it sees evidence of a recovery in some advertising verticals while other areas remain challenged. Hopefully, the company will be able to, once again, execute well within this environment.
While investors should decide for themselves what they think of Roku stock after its big jump higher, these bullish analysts have some good points about some promising areas of substantial improvement in Roku's business. However, I find the stock's $12 billion market capitalization -- despite net income remaining negative -- difficult to justify.
