Roku, Inc. (ROKU) announced the launch of 17 new linear channels to its existing lineup on The Roku Channel. Shares of the TV streaming giant have gained 138% over the past year.
The Roku Channel features content from over 175 partners and has a massive library of over 40,000 free movies and television programs.
Markedly, several popular programs, including AccuWeather Now, Baywatch, CBC News, and Real Madrid TV, will be available to viewers for free.
With the newly added channels, the Roku Channel now boasts more than 200 linear channels showing a comprehensive range of free content, including news, sports, and kids and family content, to name a few.
Roku has also launched a special channel dedicated to The Wiggles in celebration of its popular Kids and Family segment’s second anniversary, which has seen significant growth since its launch in 2019. (See Roku stock charts on TipRanks)
Ashley Hovey, Director at The Roku Channel AVOD commented, “The demand for free, quality programming continues to be of importance to our streamers. We’ve seen linear streaming explode over the last year and we’re very excited to offer an all-new lineup of great channels with some of the most-recognized franchises to our users.”
Stephens analyst Nicholas Zangler recently upgraded Roku from a Hold to a Buy and increased the price target from $400 to $475 (33% upside potential).
Zangler said “Our overarching thesis is that all linear TV ad spend will shift to connected TV, driving $9 bil. in connected TV ad spend to $72 bil. over time. In addition, we expect performance marketers, that currently spend $134 bil. across search and social advertising platforms, to divert ad spend into the CTV channel as new technologies have enabled measurement and attribution on the big screen.”
Overall, the stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 12 Buys and 1 Sell. The average Roku price target of $509.08 implies 42.6% upside potential from current levels.
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