Shares of Netflix plunged more than 10% in late trading after the streaming giant reported a rare slowdown in subscriber growth.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company on Wednesday said it added 2.7 million subscribers in the quarter ended in June — down 2.3 million from its forecast of 5 million new viewers. The company behind “Orange Is the New Black” and “House of Cards” gained 5.5 million subscribers during the same time last year.
Netflix’s stock spiraled as much as 13% in extended trading on the dismal numbers, after closing down less than 1%, at $362.44.
The company blamed the disappointing subscriber growth on a lackluster show lineup — but Wall Street analysts pointed to the company’s decision to hike prices at a time when competition by rival streaming services is heating up.
The price hikes, which started in the spring, pushed the cost of a standard subscription to $12.99 a month, from $10.99, and to $8.99 a month, from $7.99, for a basic plan.
“The competition/price increase-related churn ‘wall of worry’ could take a few quarters to disprove,” said JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth, before adding that Netflix remains a good buy.
Netflix is raising prices at a time of intensifying competition for streaming eyeballs. In addition to existing rivals like Hulu and Amazon Prime, the company faces a flood of new products to be launched as soon as this year by deep-pocketed rivals.
Disney, for example, plans to release a service that will include its vast archive of movies for the low price of $6.99 a month in the coming months. Apple is also readying its own service for later this year at an undisclosed price.
WarnerMedia has plans to launch HBO Max, also for an unknown cost, in 2020.
Netflix Chairman and Chief Executive Reed Hastings insisted the competition was nothing to worry about.
“We don’t believe competition was a factor since there wasn’t a material change in the competitive landscape during the second quarter,” he told analysts and investors. “Rather, we think the second quarter’s content slate drove less growth in paid net adds than we anticipated.”
He said the company’s first-quarter subscriber growth was “so large,” with 9.6 million subscriber additions, that it may have contributed to the second-quarter slowdown.
Netflix ended the quarter with 151.6 million global subscriptions.
Netflix reported diluted earnings of 60 cents a share for the second quarter on revenue of $4.92 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings per share of 56 cents on revenue of $4.93 billion.
Credit: Source link
The post Netflix shares plunge after rare slowdown in subscriber growth appeared first on Fox USA Live.
from WordPress https://ift.tt/30ErNde
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank