Bank of America double upgraded ROKU to "buy"
Shares of Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) boast a 2.5% premarket lead, after a double upgrade from Bank of America.
The broker upgraded the streaming stalwart to "buy" from "underperform," saying the company is poised to improve revenue and margin. The double upgrade also followed Roku's better-than-expected quarterly report.
On the charts, ROKU yesterday closed at its highest level since September. What's more, the equity managed to close above its 200-day moving average for the first time since August 2021. Year-to-date, Roku stock is 73.4% higher.
Coming into today, 14 of the 23 brokerages rated the security a "hold" or worse, leaving ample room for an unwinding of pessimism amongst the brokerage bunch. Meanwhile, the 10.72 million shares sold short represent 8.8% of the stock's available float.
A shift in the options pits could provide additional tailwinds. There's been a penchant for bearish bets in the options pits of late, per ROKU's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.14 that sits higher than 80% of readings from the past year -- indicating a put-bias amongst short-term options traders.