Roku CEO on sell-off despite strong earnings: “our stock is notoriously volatile”

Roku Inc (NASDAQ: ROKU) reported its financial results for the fiscal second quarter on Wednesday that beat Wall Street estimates. Shares of the company, however, tanked a little under 10% in after-hours trading as active-account growth in Q2 came in weaker than expected.

CEO’s remarks on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”

But CEO Anthony Wood is satisfied with the streaming hours and active-account growth in the recent quarter. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, he said:

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We added 1.5 million net active accounts in Q2, which is more than the pre-pandemic equivalent. People are watching less TV now than last year as the COVID-19 restrictions are easing. Nonetheless, if you compare Roku to the overall TV industry, we did excellent. TV viewing, in general, is down about 19%, but Roku’s viewing hours were up 19%. Our stock is just notoriously volatile.

Financial performance

Roku generated $645 million of revenue in the second quarter, including $532 million and $113 million from its platform and player businesses, respectively. The California-based company posted $73.5 million of net income (52 cents a share) versus the year-ago figure of $43.1 million in loss (35 cents a share).

According to FactSet, experts had forecast $619 million of revenue and 13 cents of EPS.

Active accounts growth

Roku added 1.5 million active accounts in the second quarter. A total of 55.1 million, however, was less than 55.7 million active accounts that analysts had forecast. Monetised video advertising impressions, as per the Nasdaq-listed firm, more than doubled in Q2.

The earnings report comes more than a month after Apple Inc bought a spot on Roku’s remote control.

Guidance for the third quarter

For fiscal Q3, Roku forecasts up to $65 million of revenue. On a GAAP basis, it expects to report between $3 million in loss and $7 million in profit this quarter. In comparison, analysts are calling for $649 million of revenue and $29 million in net loss.  

In separate news from the U.S., Uber also reported its quarterly financial results on Wednesday.