Shares pop as Netflix tops Q4 growth mark
Netflix blew past fourth-quarter growth estimates — signing up 8.3 million new subscribers in the period, despite a price increase.
The solid performance cheered investors — who pushed shares of the video streamer up more than 8 percent in after-hours trading, to over $246, a new high.
The spike pushed the market cap of the Reed Hastings-led company above $100 billion — and had the CEO feeling bulletproof.
“We don’t see it as threat to us any more than Hulu has been,” Hastings said during a conference call, speaking of the Disney-Fox tie-up.
Disney has agreed to buy most of the assets of Twenty-First Century Fox as the Mouse House looks to become a greater force in streaming and to wield more power over its partners.
“Will it trigger a bunch of consolida- tions?” Hastings said of the deal. “It’s possible... the big US media mergers are pretty peripheral to us.”
The strong fourth quarter brought total Netflix subscribers to 117.6 million.
Profits in the quarter more than doubled, to $186 million, or 41 cents a share.
Streaming revenue rose 35.3 percent in the quarter, to $3.18 billion — while the number of subscribers grew at a 25.4 percent rate, reflecting the price increase passed along during the period.
Netflix will invest $8 billion in content in 2018, Hastings said — noting that it will “be higher in 2019 and 2020” as the Los Gatos, Calif., company increases revenue and its content budget.
Results included a $39 million charge for unreleased content. That appeared to include “House of Cards” — which had to reshoot scenes after Kevin Spacey was fired after he was accused of sexual misconduct.