Investing

Netflix Runs Awry on Its Tactical Earnings Case

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is generally used to seeing earnings beats and seeing analysts raising targets after each report. That was not the case during the week of October 24 after what was deemed to have an earnings miss despite 9% EPS growth and 17% revenue growth. An additional problem was earnings guidance for the full year and coming quarter guidance – which may be tied to a one-time Brazilian tax more than due to domestic operations. Netflix is also looking for advertising revenue to double again in 2025.

Netflix closed out the week of October 24 at $1,094.69 — down 8.7% for the week and down 9.4% for the month. The stock is still up almost 23% YTD and up 43% from a year ago. So, what is Wall Street saying? Multiple price target cuts were recorded despite a lack of formal analyst downgrades.

These are the price cuts that were tracked during the week after earnings:

  • JPMorgan maintained its Neutral rating but cut its target to $1,275 from $1,300.
  • Piper Sandler maintained its Overweight rating but cut its target to $1,400 from $1,500.
  • Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating but cut its target to $1,400 from $1,500.
  • Wells Fargo maintained its Overweight rating but cut its target to $1,510 from $1,560.

Other firms maintaining ratings along with their price targets:

  • Argus maintained its Buy rating and $1,410 price target.
  • Bernstein reiterated its Buy rating and $1,390 price target.
  • Canaccord Genuity reiterated its Buy rating and kept its target at $1,525.
  • Citi maintained its Hold rating and $1,280 price target.
  • Goldman Sachs reiterated its Neutral rating and $1,300 price target.
  • Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and $1,599 price target.
  • Needham reiterated its Buy rating and $1,500 price target.
  • Guggenheim reiterated its Buy rating and $1,450 price target.

And then there was a single price target hike that was monitored. Rosenblatt was among the rare price target hikes, reiterating its Buy rating and raising its target to $1,530 from $1,515.

All analyst ratings and price targets have been sourced to each firm issuing their calls. Tactical Bulls does not maintain any formal rating and has no formal price target of its own in Netflix. As a reminder, analysts can get their thesis wrong and no analyst reports come with assurances or money-back guarantees if the stock price does not live up to expectations.

Netflix has a 52-week range of $746.25 to $1,341.15.