Steve Louden
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open
Thanks, Anthony. We delivered exceptionally strong results this quarter in both the platform and player segments. Before taking your questions, I will walk through financial highlights and address our outlook. Please see our shareholder letter for the full financial details from the quarter. Overall revenue growth accelerated to 59% year-over-year, the highest level since Roku went public in 2017 as both platform and player segments outperformed expectations. Platform revenue growth of 86% year-over-year increased sequentially from 79% year-over-year last quarter. This was driven by increases in the estimated value of content distribution agreements based on improved visibility and performance trends, which resulted in a larger-than-expected recognition of revenue in the quarter. As a reminder, revenue recognition of our content distribution agreements can be lumpy quarter-to-quarter. In addition, robust growth in advertising continued as Roku monetized video ad impressions once again more than double year-over-year, and we expect that trend to continue throughout 2019. The player revenue growth rate of 24% year-over-year increased sequentially from 18% year-over-year last quarter driven by strong core retail channel sales growth. Player units were up 36% year-over-year and ASPs were down 10% as we continued to optimize for account growth. Total gross profit of $114 million was up 47% year-over-year as reported. Excluding the $8.9 million benefit in Q2 2018 from a release of accruals related to potential IP licensing liabilities that did not materialize, total gross profit would have grown 66% year-over-year, which is faster than the revenue growth rate. As anticipated, overall gross margin declined sequentially from 48.8% to 45.7% due to the continued mix shift to video advertising, the introduction of premium subscriptions, and our strategy of driving down player ASPs. OpEx in the quarter grew 60% year-over-year to $125 million driven by a 33% growth in headcount and higher stock-based compensation. Excluding stock-based comp, OpEx was up 46% year-over-year, which was well below our revenue and gross profit growth rates. Our strong revenue and gross profit performance allowed us to deliver a better than expected adjusted EBITDA of $11 million in Q2. We ended the quarter with $387 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments, which included net proceeds of $81 million from the sale of Class A common stock in an at-the-market offering transaction during the quarter. With that, let’s turn to our outlook for the full year. Please note that our outlook does not include the impact if any of new tariffs that maybe imposed on foreign sourced goods as there are still too many uncertainties related to the timing, scope, and level of potential near-term changes in this area. We along with our partners are taking steps to mitigate potential adverse impacts. Based on strong first half results and momentum in the second half, we are raising our 2019 revenue outlook to $1.085 billion at the midpoint, representing roughly 46% year-over-year growth, up from 40% year-over-year growth in our prior outlook. We expect platform revenue to represent roughly two-thirds of total revenue. We are raising our total gross profit outlook to $485 million at the midpoint, up from $470 million previously. For modeling purposes, you should continue to model full-year platform gross margins in the low 60s as a percentage of revenue driven by the continued mix shift to video advertising and the ramp up of premium subscription as the year progresses. We expect player gross margins to be in the low-single digits for 2019. And similar to last year, we expect player gross margin to be the lowest in Q4. As a reminder, we are not optimizing for player gross profit as our strategy of trading player margin for account growth and platform revenue growth continues to work well. Our strategy is to reinvest incremental gross profit in our business to further strengthen our competitive advantages and growth drivers. Given our performance in the first half, we are raising our full year adjusted EBITDA outlook to a range of $30 million to $40 million. We anticipate sequential increases in operating expenses from our continued investments in talent, product development, and sales and marketing efforts as well as the impact of increased facility costs. The stock-based comp estimate for 2019 has increased to roughly $90 million from $75 million in the prior outlook, largely due to higher stock price and additional equity refresh grants. Depreciation and amortization and other net income of $10 million are reflected in our outlook for roughly $66 million of net income loss in 2019. Our Q3 outlook calls for 46% year-over-year revenue growth to $252.5 million at the midpoint and 47% year-over-year gross profit growth to $116.5 million. We anticipate a particularly large sequential increase in operating expenses in Q3 primarily due to increased headcount related costs, facility costs, and timing of expenses shifting from Q2. As a result, we expect our adjusted EBITDA loss to be roughly $8 million in Q3 at the midpoint and a net income loss of roughly $37 million, which includes stock-based comp of $26 million and $3 million of depreciation and amortization and other net income in the quarter. I will summarize by saying how pleased we are with the performance of the business in the first half of the year and with the strong momentum we possess going into the second half. With that, let’s turn it over for your questions. Operator?