Roku’s strong 2020 looks to have carried over to the first quarter of 2021, with the streaming device company on Thursday reporting a surprise quarterly profit and Q1 sales that easily lapped Wall Street’s expectations
Roku reported $574.2 million in revenue, which was about 17% higher than the $491.3 million analysts had projected; compared to Q1 2020, Roku’s sales increased 79%. The company also reported earnings of 54 cents per share, compared to the 13 cent loss per share Wall Street had projected. Roku’s gross profit of $326.8 billion was up 132% since the same time last year.
While Roku’s business enjoyed strong growth, its customer acquisition slowed down in Q1. The company added another 2.4 million active accounts during the quarter, pushing Roku to 53.6 million active accounts overall. But that was a step down from Q4 2020, when the company added 5.2 million new accounts.
“In Q1, we grew active accounts 35% year-over-year to a total of 53.6 million driven by sales of Roku TV models in both the U.S. and international markets,” the company said in its letter to shareholders. “Roku users streamed 18.3 billion hours, an increase of 49% year-over-year. Prior to lapping COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in mid-March, both active accounts and streaming hour year-over-year growth rates trending ahead of those in Q4 2020.”
After a remarkable 2020 in which its stock price jumped 142%, Roku has had a quieter start to 2021, with its share price down 11% since the start of the year. Perhaps most notably in Q1, Roku acquired the rights to more than 75 Quibi shows in January, after the short-form video app shut down late last year.
Roku’s earnings report came out after an already wild day for the company, at least from a stock market perspective. Roku’s shares were down 6.6% by the end of trading on Thursday, but after the company’s Q1 results were published, its share price jumped 5.6% in after-hours trading to $300 per share.
Roku’s executives will hold a conference call at 2 p.m. PT to discuss its Q1 report.
