Netflix Earnings Reaction: Stock Rises In Early Trading As Bulls And Bears Debate Second Quarter Takeaways

deadline.com:

After Netflix’s better-than-expected second quarter earnings yesterday, the company’s shares continued their recent upturn as Wall Street analysts took sides on the takeaway from the report.Netflix stock was up almost 4%, above $209, in morning trading on twice its normal volume.

It has risen 15% in the last two weeks, breaking above $200 yesterday for the first time since April (though still far below its high of $700 in November 2021).After weeks of anxiety, Netflix quieted many doubters by reporting a loss of 970,000 subscribers in the period and earnings per share ahead of analysts’ consensus estimate.

The company had warned of a loss of 2 million and some analysts predicted the pullback could be as great as 4 million. Even so, skeptics point out, the loss was the biggest in any quarter in the company’s 25-year history.Michael Morris, an analyst with Guggenheim, greeted the results favorably.

He reiterated his “buy” rating on the stock and kept his 12-month price target at $265. “Key opportunities in advertising and password sharing are taking shape,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Notably, the company’s ambitious pursuit comes with spend discipline, with annual cash content spend of $17 billion in ‘the right ZIP code’ for the next several years.”Michael Pachter of Wedbush also singled out the financial discipline on the cost side as a big reason why he has an “outperform” (buy) rating on the shares. “We are confident that Netflix is prudently positioning itself as an immensely and increasingly profitable company as long as its revenue growth remains relatively low,” he wrote in a research note. “We think its guidance for 2022 free cash flow of roughly $1 billion and annual growth from there essentially underscores