Roku's stock wins on optimistic forecasts as advertising revenues rise



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Shares of Roku Inc. advanced on Thursday afternoon, after the streaming company published a higher-than-expected business figure and released optimistic forecasts for the coming year.

The Company reported revenues of $ 275.7 million for the December quarter, up from $ 188.3 million a year ago and $ 262.1 million from consensus. FactSet. The company experienced strong growth in its platform business, which generated revenues of $ 151.4 million. Roku

ROKU, -4.03%

The platform segment includes advertising, licenses and other sources of income other than equipment.

Roku announced a net profit of $ 6.8 million for the fourth quarter, or 5 cents per share. A year ago, the group generated net income of $ 6.9 million and earnings per share of 6 cents.

Shares rose 4.5% after trading hours.

Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden said that advertising was one of the main drivers of platform revenue. Roku saw the number of ad impressions monetized on his platform double in 2018. Louden called the advertising-backed Roku channel a "powerful financial model for us." "While Roku continues to see a commitment to the content hub, which organizes free programs on the entire network of the company. The next step is to monetize the Roku channel beyond advertising, through premium subscriptions to services such as Starz, an option the company is just starting to offer to its users.

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According to Louden, Roku has seen growth in its web-based web-viewing platform and has recently improved its mobile app so that users can watch their premium subscriptions when they are away from their TVs. Mr Louden said that international growth "is undoubtedly a priority area", which generates more internal resources, even if it is "more a story for 2020".

Management's revenue guidance for the current quarter has been broadly in line with expectations: the company expects revenues of $ 185 million to $ 190 million, while the FactSet consensus forecasts $ 188.3 million. Roku expects to achieve for the first time this year annual revenues of $ 1 billion. Management forecasts a forecast of $ 1 billion to $ 1.025 billion for 2019. Analysts modeled $ 985.2 million for the full year.

The company expects platform revenues to account for nearly two-thirds of total revenues in the current year, compared with 56% in 2018.

Roku's stock has increased 28% in the last three months, while the S & P 500

SPX, -0.35%

increased by 4.7%.

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