Analysts rework Roku stock price targets, rating after Amazon deal

Hey, what’s on TV tonight?

The question sounds just so 20th Century, reeking of rabbit ears and Ricky Ricardo in this age of streaming entertainment, where you can watch just about anything you want any time you want. Including “I Love Lucy.”

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The U.S. has more than 200 million connected-TV users, and 88% of American households have a connected-TV device.

According to Nielsen, in 2024 streaming surpassed cable and broadcast viewing time for the first time, with more than 40% of all TV-viewing time spent on streaming.

With a new era comes new lingo, so this is probably a good time to mention that streaming refers to the delivery of video content over the internet, while CTV describes streaming video content on a television set connected to the internet.

And now two very big names in CTV circles — Amazon  (AMZN)  and Roku  (ROKU)  — are getting together like Ozzie and Harriet.  

Amazon’s demand-side platform will place ads on top-viewed platforms like the Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video along with other services available via Roku and Amazon Fire TV operating systems.

Roku and Amazon are teaming up. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Roku: Amazon deal good for marketers, TV watchers

The alliance aims to “enable seamless access to logged-in users across major streaming apps,” Kelly MacLean, a vice president at Amazon’s ad unit who oversees sales tied to its Amazon DSP, told Variety. 

The companies said early tests of the technology showed advertisers reaching 40% more unique viewers while they cut back the frequency of a specific ad running in front of the same users by nearly 30%. 

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Roku and Amazon estimate their partnership will make available a pool of 80 million connected-TV households in the U.S.

The partnership will give rise to “a better experience for marketers, consumers and programmers that are on our platforms,” says Jay Askinasi, Roku’s senior vice president of global media revenue and growth. 

“It means more relevant ads, better frequency management from a consumer perspective, more addressability and measurement on our programmer partners,” he said.

The new service will be available in the U.S. to all advertisers that use Amazon DSP by the fourth quarter of 2025.

“Roku has maintained its favorable positioning as it is an agnostic platform allowing it to partner with Amazon, Walmart  (WMT) , and many others,” Wedbush analysts said in a research note. 

“This allows Roku to create partnerships that leverage others’ data, and the exclusivity between Amazon and Roku in their newly announced partnership does not preclude the latter from continuing its partnerships with Walmart, Shopify,  (SHOP)  Instacart, and others.”

As Roku enters the early stages of shoppable ads, Wedbush said, the San Jose, Calif., provider of a streaming-tech platform is establishing itself as a partner to all, “creating a moat as a CTV platform that will further insulate it from competition in the coming years.”

Wedbush has an outperform rating and $100 price target on Roku.

Roku shares are up nearly 50% from a year ago and up 7.8% in 2025. It finished regular trading on June 17 at $80.63, off 1.9%.

Analysts see Amazon-Roku benefiting advertisers

Several other investment firms issued reports for Roku shares after the deal was announced.

Bank of America Global Research raised the firm’s price target on Roku to $100 from $85 and affirmed a buy rating after the partnership was unveiled, The Fly reported.

Advertisers will have access to the largest authenticated CTV footprint in the U.S. exclusively through Amazon’s demand-side platform, B of A said, adding that the expanded partnership is intended to improve performance, planning and measurement for all advertisers. 

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The firm said a key tenet of its bullish thesis is predicated on Roku monetizing its existing inventory through their integrations with demand-side platforms.

BofA views this announcement as “another proof point that Roku intends to be more flexible and drive further interoperability within their platform.” 

Citizens JMP analyst Matthew Condon said that the Roku-Amazon deal gives the advertisers within the Seattle tech and e-retail giant’s demand-side platform significant reach across Roku and Fire-TV audiences, which can ultimately strengthen Roku’s ability to monetize its inventory.

The analyst, who reiterated an outperform rating and $95 price target on Roku shares, said he was increasingly confident that the company could sustain mid-teens-percent growth in its platform revenue.

Loop Capital analyst Alan Gould upgraded Roku to buy from hold with a price target of $100, up from $80.

The analyst cited expectations that the Amazon advertising partnership should begin boosting Roku’s financial results starting next year. 

This development will further strengthen Roku’s position as the leading TV operating system in the U.S., Gould said.

The analyst noted that the partnership would integrate Roku and Amazon’s logged-in connected-TV user bases, representing an estimated 80 million households, through the Amazon demand-side platform. 

Roku contributes what Gould called its industry-leading user base while Amazon “brings its unmatched shopping feedback loop.”

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