The company gave guidance for the third quarter of 2015. The company expects EPS of $0.07 on $1.59 billion in revenue compared to consensus estimates of $0.05 in EPS on $1.73 billion in revenue. This guidance is really just fueling the fire.
In the second quarter Netflix added a record 3.3 million new streaming members, compared to 1.7 in the same period last year. This broke down to 0.9 million domestic net adds and 2.4 million international net adds.
Going forward Netflix expects domestic net adds for the third quarter to be 1.15 million, slightly higher than the previous year. At the same time third quarter international net adds are expected to be 2.4 million.
International revenue grew 48% year over year despite a negative impact of $83 million from foreign exchange rates, while U.S. streaming revenue grew 22% year over year.
The company anticipates that as its global content spending approaches $5 billion in 2016 on a P&L basis (over $6 billion cash), it will devote more to investment of original programming in both absolute dollars and percentage terms. This includes the series, documentaries, stand-up and even original feature films.
Free cash flow in the second quarter amounted to negative $229 million, compared to negative $163 million in the first quarter. The rationale behind this is that Netflix’s investment in originals is working capital intensive which results in higher cash spent upfront relative to content amortization. Ultimately the company expects this trend to continue considering its increased investment in originals.
Reed Hastings, CEO, and David Wells, CFO, released a joint statement on earnings:
We’re pleased to see the growing momentum of our original programming driving strong growth in the U.S. and abroad. With our first set of international markets having achieved contribution profitability, we’ll be making our first foray into Asia this Fall with our Japan launch, and are gearing up to offer our service around the globe.
Netflix shares closed Wednesday down 2.2% at $98.13 on a split-adjusted 52-week trading range of $45.08 to $101.64. Following the release of the earnings report shares were up 10% at $108.00 in the after-hours trading session.
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