Netflix Stock Earnings: NFLX advances afterhours as Q4 net subscribers jump 7.66 million

Netflix reported revenue in line for Q4 but a major miss on earnings.
Netflix net subscribers jumped much higher than expected though.
NFLX surged up to $345 on the news, more than +8%.
Netflix lost 2% in the regular session to close just below $320.

Clay Webster FXStreet

Netflix (NFLX) stock rose immediately after the streaming company's fourth quarter results missed by a wide margin late Thursday. Wall Street had expected Netflix to produce $0.50 per share in GAAP earnings on revenue of $7.85 billion. The revenue was in line exactly, but GAAP EPS arrived at $0.12, missing the mark by 38 cents. However, NFLX stock rose 4.6% afterhours to $230 on both guidance and subscribers.

Netflix earnings news

The earnings miss was entirely forgotten after Netflix unveiled their new subscriber numbers. Netflix now has 230.75 million global subscribers. This means net new subscribers grew 7.66 million in just the fourth quarter. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 4.1 million.

Back during the third quarter, Netflix management said they saw the business turning over a new leaf after the service's subscriber growth dropped off for a time early in the year. Now for the first quarter of 2023, Netflix management forecasts EPS of $2.82 on revenue of $8.17 billion.

Co-CEO Reed Hastings has opted to become executive chairman at Netflix. Current Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters will take his seat as co-CEO alongside Ted Sarandos. The job title changes are effective immediately, and the board of directors has spent an entire decade planning for this succession strategy.

Netflix stock forecast

The four-hour chart shows Netflix stock once again hitting some resistance in the zone between $330 and $333. This area held on stubbornly between January 12 and 17. NFLX stock did jump as high as $345.52 on the initial subscriber numbers but then got pushed back into the zone during the afterhours trade. Bears will continue to focus on pushing the stock down to $295 at the rising support trendline, however, since the four-hour chart shows a Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator that has turned lower. Bulls will look to produce a close above $333 in Friday's regular session.

NFLX 4-hour chart

Author

Clay Webster

FXStreet

Clay Webster grew up in the US outside Buffalo, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He began investing after college following the 2008 financial crisis.

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