Investors Will Want to Watch ROKU Stock in 2026

If you're channel surfing through stocks to consider buying heading into 2026, Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) might surprise you. The streaming services stock is trading 32% higher in 2025, doubling the market average. Zoom out, and the enthusiasm starts to buffer. Roku stock declined in three of the four previous years. Like many stocks that became early pandemic plays, Roku isn't anywhere close to the all-time highs it reached in 2021.

However, you're not here for a history lesson. You want to see if Roku can keep this year's winning streak going into next year. The outlook is refreshingly promising, so take a closer look at what investors should be watching when it comes to Roku in 2026.

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Momentum is positive

There have been a lot of ups and downs in Roku's stock chart over the years, but there is some encouraging consistency in the business itself. Revenue is on track to post double-digit growth for at least the tenth year in a row in 2025. It also has a run of 10 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth on the top line. Its guidance for the current quarter extends that earnings season streak to 11.

The news is equally impressive -- if not more so -- on the other end of the income statement. After a couple of years of losses, Roku surprised the market by turning profitable in the second quarter of this year. Its latest financial update for the third quarter, along with its outlook for the fourth quarter, calls for back-to-back reports of accelerating earnings growth to close out the year. It has also topped analyst profit forecasts by at least 25% in each of the last five quarters.

Roku's popularity isn't being questioned, even if Roku stopped reporting its actual user counts on its platform at the start of 2025. The metrics it continues to report suggest the audience continues to widen. It's not just about revenue gains. Folks spent a record 36.5 billion hours streaming on Roku's platform in the third quarter, a 14% jump from where it was a year earlier.

Heading into 2026

The early read on the year ahead is promising. Analysts see Roku's revenue rising 13% to $5.3 billion, stretching that double-digit growth streak to 11 years. They also expect earnings to more than triple, admittedly based on 2025 results that started out the year in the red.

There are still some positive and potentially negative things to watch out for in 2026. Something positive is Roku's ascending status as an adtech company. It entered into a partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon that should boost its exposure to marketers in the growing connected TV space.

Perhaps not as encouraging, it will be interesting to see how Howdy fares in 2026. Roku launched the premium service this summer, charging $2.99 a month for access to a growing collection of video content. Unlike the free, ad-supported Roku Channel, which has become one of the platform's most popular channels, it remains to be seen whether an audience already paying for more popular premium services wants to take on yet another premium service.

You still can't bet against momentum. If Roku can continue to build on its newfound profitability while keeping its long-running revenue growth streaks going, Roku is in good shape to beat the market again in 2026.

Rick Munarriz has positions in Roku. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Roku. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.