Last Updated on August 18, 2023 by Mathew Diekhake
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest unloaded 672,000+ Roku shares recently in four separate transactions between August 4 and August 10 of 2023. I agree with this move for several reasons.
First, it’s clear to me that she’s hired a very good trader since the crash of 2021 because CNBC was saying she wasn’t a good trader. And that was fair criticism at the time. She wasn’t trading at all and was instead dollar cost averaging during the worst bear market since the 1800s which didn’t help any of us who were losing our life savings during the crash.
Second, I have a Roku box in my house. It’s attached to a bedroom TV (in the master bedroom) and it’s called Telstra TV. In other words, our local internet provider called Telstra offers a “Telstra TV” package which can only exist thanks to the Roku box which it uses. But here’s the thing: we don’t get any Roku channels with this Roku box. The only decent free streaming channel on Telstra TV is Plex. Yes, the website Plex that anyone can visit at any time. I can connect my laptop to my smart TV and watch Plex any time I want, as can anyone with a laptop. So this Telstra TV isn’t very good at offering free things.
In the long run, I like Roku as an investment. But in the short term, the TV in the master bedroom in my house isn’t getting changed any time soon. In fact, I’m sure the owner of it doesn’t plan to change it probably for the rest of their lives but at least for another 10 years. As for the Telstra TV package, they don’t plan on inquiring about how to change that either.
So it’s going to take time for Roku to get properly distributed throughout the world if I use my own home as an example. And I think I should because my home is a pretty good example of the average home. We’re usually at least as good as average in general and certainly when it comes to technology. My country (Australia) isn’t falling in love with Roku anytime soon. And so I’m not falling in love with Roku stock any time soon either, especially after the bull run it has so far in 2023.
Cathie Wood’s team took profits from Roku because their trader thought it was a good time to shift that money elsewhere. I agree with that. But one thing Ark Invest in general may not agree with me on is that Roku isn’t very well known yet and it could take a long time before it becomes a household name. I much prefer Zoom to Roku because Zoom can connect to any laptop or desktop at any time. The software is already there and anybody of any age can start using it. Things aren’t so simple with Roku. No one wants to buy a new TV; they do it when the old one breaks. And that’s the only time you end up with Roku unless you have a better ISP than us.