Analysts cut their price targets on Roku Inc. Universal Electronics Inc. announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) publicly issued a favorable final determination in the patent infringement case against Roku.
Commenting on the news, Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos said his review of the ruling leads him to believe the financial impact to Roku may be more limited in scope than the headlines suggest.
Kurnos maintained a Buy and a price target of $525 (163 percent upside).
Keeping an Overweight, JPMorgan analyst Cory Carpenter lowered the price target to $315 from $435 (58 percent upside).
Heading into 2022, the analyst believes the internet group is in a stronger position than pre-pandemic amid the increased digitization of the economy.
However, he expects “more varied stock performance to continue,” with company-specific operations a more significant factor into post-pandemic normalization.
The analyst sees lower levels of growth as many companies face tough comps and move toward normalization.
Into 2022, JPMorgan generally prefers e-commerce and subscription-based names over online advertising.
More bearish on the name, Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne lowered his PT on Roku to $190 from $295 (4.8 percent downside) and kept an Underweight.
The analyst lowered his expectations for active account net additions in 2022 below consensus. He contends that pandemic pulls forward and supply chain issues are likely to weigh on active account growth.
Although Swinburne acknowledged the risk/reward has become less skewed given the recent underperformance of Roku shares, he still sees further risk to Platform segment gross margins.
