Is Netflix Ready For the Competition After Q3 Earnings?

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX | NFLX Price Prediction) reported its most recent quarterly results after markets closed Wednesday. The firm said that it had $1.47 in earnings per share (EPS) and $5.245 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates that called for $1.04 in EPS and $5.25 billion in revenue. The third quarter from last year had $0.89 in EPS and $4.0 billion in revenue.

During the second quarter, global net subscription additions totaled 6.77 million. In the United States, Netflix added 0.5 million memberships. Internationally, the firm added roughly 6.3 million memberships.

Note that Netflix now has a total of 158.33 million total memberships worldwide.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company is calling for $0.51 in EPS on $5.44 billion in revenue. At the same time, the company is expecting to see net subscriber adds of 7.6 million. There are consensus estimates calling for $0.81 in EPS on $5.52 billion in revenue.

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Reed Hastings, Chairman and CEO of Netflix, commented:

For Q4, we’re expecting consolidated revenue to increase 30% year over year with 9% streaming ARPU growth. We’re forecasting 7.6m global paid net adds (vs. 8.8m last Q4), with 0.6m in the US and 7.0m for the international segment. This implies full year 2019 paid net adds of 26.7m, down from 28.6m last year. While we had previously expected 2019 paid net adds to be up year over year, our current forecast reflects several factors including less precision in our ability to forecast the impact of our Q4 content slate, which consists of several new big IP launches (as opposed to returning seasons), the minor elevated churn in response to some price changes, and new forthcoming competition. As we outline in more detail below, our long term outlook on our business is unchanged.

Shares of Netflix closed at $286.28 with a 52-week range of $231.23 to $385.99. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $368.63. Following the announcement, the stock was initially up about 2% at $291.91 in the after-hours trading session.

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