Roku Crushes Expectations in First-Ever Earnings Report

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 6:28AM EST · Published Nov 9, 10:50AM EST

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Roku Crushes Expectations in First-Ever Earnings Report — © Thinkstock

When Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) released its third-quarter earnings report late on Wednesday, the company posted a net loss of $0.10 per share on $124.8 million in revenue. Thomson Reuters consensus estimates had called for a net loss of $1.40 per share and $110.47 million in revenue.

During the quarter, active accounts totaled 16.7 million, up 48% year over year. Importantly, more than half of new accounts in the quarter came from licensed sources, a new milestone for Roku, with the largest and fastest-growing portion coming from Roku TVs.

The company also highlighted that in this quarter streaming hours increased 58% year over year to 3.8 billion hours.

Trailing 12-month average revenue per user (ARPU) in the third quarter was a record $12.68, up 37% year over year. ARPU more than doubled in the past two years as it continued to expand its content publisher relationships and develop new ad products and monetization features.

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Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Roku expects to see revenues in the range of $175 million to $190 million and net income loss between $14 million and $8 million. Consensus estimates are a net loss of $0.13 per share and $177.12 million in revenue for the quarter.

Anthony Wood, founder and CEO, commented:

Our higher margin platform segment is the key driver of our growth and gross margin expansion, and our advertising business has more than doubled in size year-to-date. We continue to see strong momentum with our Roku TV program. One of our Roku TV partners, TCL, achieved the #2 spot for U.S. smart TV sales in September 2017 and #4 spot in 2017 year-to-date, up from #19 in 2014. We are leading the way in a rapidly evolving TV streaming ecosystem and will continue to focus on delighting our customers and creating value for our partners.

Shares of Roku were last seen up almost 47% at $27.65, with a consensus analyst price target of $25.00 and a 52-week range of $15.75 to $29.80.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.