Roku relished a robust holiday season, registering its biggest-ever quarterly sales Thursday and surpassing Wall Street estimates and even its own guidance across the board.
The streaming device maker expects a blockbuster 2020, with projections for another solid year of aggressive growth in its profits and fan base. The company's stocks spiked around 6 percent during extended sessions, Thursday.
Roku reported a net decline of $15.6 million, compared to upbeat net sales of $6.7 million in the prior-year period. Analysts polled by FactSet was charting a drop-per share of 13 cents on a GAAP basis.
The company disclosed adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation and interest of $15.2 million, retreating from $24.4 million from a year earlier, but ahead of the FactSet consensus, which targeted $12 million.
The Los Gatos, CA-based company bared in its memo to stakeholders that monetized video commercial impressions rose three-fold in the year and all leading 10 tech and telco advertisers and consumer packaged goods makers spent with Roku.
Roku chief financial officer Steve Louden told Barron's on Thursday that they are confident that "the world is shifting to streaming and that we have a great strategy in the middle of this transformation."
The company had nearly 37 million active accounts, with streaming hours rising to 11.8 billion, which is an increase of 60 percent compared to the previous year. Roku had registered more than 40 billion hours streamed for the year.
Louden pointed out that ew streaming services are "great for the company and for the television ecosystem in general." Roku is coming off a period when two big new online streaming services were rolled out, from Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Co.
Roku has boosted its active accounts by nearly 10 million in the last four quarters to settle at 37 million, said Louden, who disclosed in December that he considers quitting his post as soon as a replacement is hired.
The company's stocks rallied around 12 percent in the last seven days heading into its report, while the S&P 500 rose 1.5 percent. Roku's shares have been a huge winner in the last year, advancing more than 171 percent, compared to a 24 percent increase for the S&P in that same timeframe.
Roku has quadrupled in market valuation last year to emerge as the the best-performing stock of the year among US tech firms, with over $5 billion in market cap.
Still, market observers have raised worries about the company's profitability and competition from other services such as Amazon Fire TV and Google's Chromecast.
