Netflix Inc.'s stock popped 8% after hours Tuesday following its quarterly results, which showed a splurge in ad-fueled sales and a healthy increase in new subscribers.
The video-streaming behemoth $(NFLX)$ reported fourth-quarter earnings of $938 million, or $2.21 per share, compared with $55 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Sales improved 12.5% to $8.83 billion from $7.85 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Highlighting the three-month period was a huge hike in net subscriber additions, a whopping - and record - 13 million. Analysts were forecasting an increase of 8.7 million.
"Our healthy top-line growth reflects the benefits of paid sharing, our recent price changes and the strength of our underlying business driven by a strong slate," Netflix executives said in a letter to shareholders announcing the results.
Analysts tracked by FactSet projected Netflix to report $2.22 a share in adjusted earnings on $8.72 billion in revenue.
Shares of Netflix have climbed 35% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 SPX is up 21% over the same period.
Netflix offered robust fiscal first-quarter revenue guidance of $9.24 billion, vs. a $9.27 billion forecast by FactSet.
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's report, analysts had been predicting big numbers for Netflix's new advertising-supported tier.
Its pace of growth "suggests plenty of room for [subscription] growth in 2024," Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein said in a Jan. 12 note, while raising his price target on Netflix shares to $600. Helfstein also raised his fourth-quarter estimates for net additions to more than 10 million from 9 million, and for 2024 additions to more than 24 million from 21 million-plus.
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