The shares of Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) are down 3.7% to trade at $89.04 this morning, after some bearish analyst attention from RBC. The brokerage firm downgraded the streaming stock to "sector perform" from "outperform," while maintaining its price target of $90. The analyst in coverage is still bullish on ROKU long term, and said it "would be constructive again on any major stock pullback."
Roku stock has almost tripled year-to-date, culminating in a record high $108.32 on June 20. A recent retreat from here appears to be stalling near a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the stock's April through June rally, and should the shares bounce from here and resume their longer-term uptrend, an unwinding of skepticism could create tailwinds.
For starters, the 6.99 million shares sold short represents a healthy 8.6% of ROKU's total available float. Plus, seven of the 15 brokerages covering ROKU rate it a "hold" or "strong sell," while its consensus 12-month price target of $83.63 is a discount to its current perch.
Meanwhile, options can be had for a bargain at the moment. The streaming stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 51% stands higher than only 7% of all other readings from the past year. This means near-term options are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations at the moment.
Plus, options buyers will be pleased to know that ROKU has already shown a tendency to make bigger moves than options traders were expecting in the past year. This is based on its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) reading of 100 (out of a possible 100).