Stock price when the opinion was issued
Impressed by last week's quarterly results. Cracking down on password sharing is generating more revenue. Innovating by launching ad-supported versions. Geographic expansion. Aggressive investment in content. Has become a big free cashflow story.
Officially classified as a consumer discretionary stock, but he considers it more akin to a utility. A relatively inexpensive indulgence for the value it offers. Difficult macro headwinds would have minimal impact.
Meets a lot of his criteria but one -- it's not actually a capital-light business. Spends a lot on developing new content. A compounder. Well, and frugally, run. Investors would do well to read about the culture and the CEO. Dominates the space, market leader. Quite a bit of direct competition.
If you got in at favourable prices, stick with it. Strong company. One of the biggest mistakes investors make is that they "interrupt compounding unnecessarily" (paraphrased from Charlie Munger).
Is the leader in streaming. But you have to be a little wary of film accounting--you put the cash out front, but accountants will amortize that cost over time. So, earnings don't really reflect the true cash impact on an expanding portfolio of new releases. For a long time, NFLX was challenged on a cost basis, nor producing free cash. This is past and are now producing free cash.
It is a great company. He just does not see how they can grow into their valuation and make money for shareholders. He would have said the same thing last year. Yet their subscriber numbers continue to grow. It is not growth at a reasonable price. AAPL-Q is at 15 times earnings and 12 if you take the cash off the balance sheet. AAPL-Q is still his number one holding in his portfolios.