Roku Rises After Quarterly Revenue, Accounts Beat Estimates

(Bloomberg) -- Roku Inc. shares rose in extended trading after it reported third-quarter revenue that beat the highest analyst estimate.

The video-streaming platform company reported revenue of $451.7 million, well above the highest analyst estimate of $385 million, according to Bloomberg data. Roku also reported earnings per share of 9 cents. Wall Street had been looking for a loss of about 42 cents per share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It added 2.9 million active accounts in the quarter for a total of 46 million and it reported 14.8 billion streaming hours. Bloomberg Consensus data had pointed to about 45.5 million active accounts and 15.23 billion streaming hours.

“We’ve seen some good resilience and a good trajectory,” Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden said in a phone interview. “There has been strong demand for streaming products on the consumer side, and positive ad-market impacts from the shift away from linear TV.”

Roku declined to give a formal forecast. Louden said the company was well positioned, but that “there is a lot of uncertainty and variability as we think about the fourth quarter.” He added, in a reference to rising Covid-19 cases, that “the prior lockdown period did lead to an increase in active accounts and viewing.”

In a report published after the results, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet wrote that “all told, we view this as a solid quarter.”

Roku shares rose as much as 12% before paring much of that gain and briefly turning negative. The stock is up about 250% off a March low.

Louden said discussions for Roku to offer the HBO Max streaming service were ongoing. “We have a great capability to build an audience for a service, but getting a win-win economic deal is important,” he said.

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