Netflix Inc.NFLXBUYApr 22, 2024Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Nov 11, 2026. Market Open.
Streaming industry has become much more competitive. Difficulty maintaining a consistent, ongoing subscriber base (rather than intermittent), which also affects advertiser interest. Wait to see action on this issue before committing more $$.
Disclaimer: Not owned in segregated client accounts. However, her colleague John O'Connell owns it in the equity fund that he manages.
It's had a rough year, following the failed Warners bid. He still likes it, because the business is performing quite well. They have more subscribers and revenues outside the U.S. where they have little competition and are growing rapidly. Also, they replaced the head of content, and are looking to ad sports. Lots of ways to improve growth ahead.
(Analysts’ price target is $86.35)The fundamentals are as good or better as people have hoped. But there are worries that people are watching YouTube and no longer Netflix, but this is not in the numbers. These things reverse very quickly. Look at Google's stock. He thinks Netflix will grow at double digits for many years.
Last Friday, shares sank 9% after they reported. Their Q1 looked good to him, though, with a huge subscriber beat (adding 9.33 million paid users) and revenue jumped 15% YOY. $2.14 billion cash flow was impressive, and the company offered great guidance for the next quarter. That said, the full-year revenue growth forecast seemed lacking, slightly below expectations, and management didn't raise its full-year free cash flow forecast. This suggests things will be worse in the second half of 2024. Also, they're getting hit by currency fluctuations, like the collapse of Argentina's peso. But starting next year, Netflix won't supply numbers about membership and average revenue per member, which really spooked the market and triggered the sell-off. He agrees that they revenues mean more now with the company, but it was a boneheaded move to hide this data. Overall, he's more bullish than bearish about Netflix. Memberships are up and their ad business is growing.