Immediately two analysts have advised buying shares of the streaming company "off the radar"

Small streaming company Roku, which Barron's called an "off the radar" player, received two buy recommendations from Wall Street analysts on Thursday, December 11. Its quotes are already up more than 40% this year and will continue to show strong momentum, according to Jefferies and Wedbush. Many investors remained on the sidelines and missed a solid part of the growth, the publication writes.

Jefferies analyst James Heaney upgraded Roku's stock from a Neutral rating to a Buy recommendation and raised its target price from $100 to $135, CNBC reports . The new target is one of the highest on Wall Street and lays out a 27% upside potential relative to the closing level of trading on Dec. 11. Heaney named the streaming company as his top pick for 2026 among small- and mid-cap internet players.

Roku shares look particularly attractive due to competent cost management, a Jefferies analyst said. Combined with positive financials and business fundamentals, this could support capitalization growth in 2026, he wrote. Heaney added that Roku is markedly different from peers because its platform remains "under-monetized, with a lot of product leverage that can still be leveraged."

"Roku has a unique combination of significant revenue growth potential relative to consensus, management commitment to cost discipline and acceptable valuation," the analyst said.

He expects the streaming platform to show multi-year double-digit revenue growth. Next year, according to Jefferies' optimistic scenario, this figure will increase by 20%, while the consensus forecast assumes only 15%. Last quarter, Roku's revenue added 17% year-over-year. EBITDA growth in 2026, according to Heaney's bullish forecast, will also beat Wall Street's average estimate by a quarter.

Among the company's drivers, the analyst cited an expanded partnership with Amazon, which will allow marketers to use the Internet giant's ad-buying system to reach Roku users. Political advertising ahead of next year's U.S. midterm elections will provide additional impetus, Barron's adds .

Wedbush Securities included Roku in its "Best Ideas List," according to a note cited by Barron's. The analysts reiterated a recommendation to buy these securities and raised their target price from $115 to $130, up 23% from current quotes.

Roku has been the beneficiary of a long-term trend: people continue to abandon cable TV in favor of smart TV, where advertising budgets are also flowing, Wedbush explains. And potential competitors such as Amazon are opting to collaborate, and Google may follow suit, analysts say.

At the same time, Roku is finding new ways to attract advertisers, Wedbush noted. For example, the platform has launched its own ad manager to attract more customers among small and medium-sized businesses, and introduced interactive formats that connect viewers directly with products.

"We expect [the company's] ongoing structural changes to have an accumulative effect and prepare it for accelerating revenue growth in 2026-2027," Wedbush analysts wrote.

Roku is not involved in the "streaming wars," but it has solidified itself as an important channel for those who win them, Barron's notes. The company makes streaming devices and licenses its operating system to TV manufacturers, and viewers use the platform to watch services such as Netflix and Paramount Plus. The bulk of Roku's business comes from advertising and subscriptions.

The company's shares rose by 0.9% in trading on December 11, and since the beginning of the year they have already jumped by 43%. By comparison, the Nasdaq Composite index has added about 22% over the same period. However, Roku quotes are still more than 75% below the peak level reached in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a surge in the number of users.

The average target price assigned to Roku by Wall Street analysts suggests a potential upside of about 8.5% over a 12-month horizon.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor