Roku Inc. stock surged Monday during the regular session to close up 18% to $46.52, a new record for the streaming device and operating system company. In a note to clients Monday, Needham analyst Laura Martin raised her Roku price to $50 up from $28. Martin rates Roku a buy. In the note to clients, Martin wrote that she views Roku as a pure streaming play, as such services become more popular in the U.S., but without the associated risks of being in the content business. Martin wrote that Netflix Inc. is the closest comparable company because at its core Roku is not an ad-driven business in the same way Facebook Inc. is, or other internet companies that must pay “the Google tax” to generate traffic. Roku stock has jumped 148% in the last month, compared with the S&P 500 index which has gained less than 1%.
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