• by Wayne Friedman , May 11, 2018

After stock market gains following first-quarter financial results earlier in the week, OTT device and ad-streaming service Roku saw its stock fall sharply.

Following the release of its first-quarter results late on Wednesday, its stock price fell 7% on Thursday and was down another 3% on Friday to $34.44.

Roku, a leading OTT set-top box maker, posted higher revenue from its streaming platform than from the sale of its physical devices, and noted a smaller-than-expected loss.

Revenue was up 36% to $136.6 million, while platform revenue more than doubled (106%) to $75.1 million. This comes as TV set manufacturers are increasingly incorporating the Roku software on their TV sets. Its “player” revenue -- OTT set-top boxes -- was down 3% to 61.5 million.

Roku trimmed its net loss to $6.6 million from $8.7 million. It says its average revenue per user grew 50% to $15.07 a month.

For the second quarter, the company estimates revenue of $135 million to $145 million. Projections for full-year 2018 are between $685 million and $705 million.

Roku said that among nearly 21 million active users, almost half either cancelled their linear TV subscription or never had one. Its 21 million active accounts are up 47% from the same period the year before.