After almost doing to TV show and movie piracy what Valve did to video game buccaneering and riding high on the pandemic-era streaming boom, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has seen a significant fall in 2022.
More recent performance, however, has been decidedly more positive for the platform and it has been on a continuous rise for some 18 months.
The climb can be attributed to the notable success of a large variety of more recent Netflix shows, as well as to changes in its business model which have seen the introduction of an ad-supported subscription tier, price hikes, and a crackdown on password sharing in certain regions.
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Enthusiasm stemming from the developments is more than evident in the forecasts for the next earnings report, scheduled for April 18.
Netflix Earnings Forecast
At press time, the analyst consensus is that Netflix will report earnings-per-share (EPS) of $4.49 – significantly above $2.88 in the same quarter of the previous year, and double the latest EPS.
More forward-looking forecasts are also bullish with Q2 expected to bring an EPS of $4.54 and Q3 $4.53. A falling off is, however, expected in Q4 2024 with earnings-per-share coming down to $3.5.
Short-term bullishness, long-term uncertainty
Despite the high hopes for the upcoming earnings report, a look at analyst ratings of NFLX and the 12-month price targets reveals that some uncertainty persists when it comes to the shares of the streaming platform.
While Netflix retains an overall ‘buy’ rating with a total of 32 ‘buys’ and ‘strong buys,’ as many as 17 experts are neutral on the stock and it also has one ‘sell’ and one ‘strong sell’ recommendation attached to it, per the data retrieved on April 12 from TradingView.
Similarly, while Pivotal Research Group forecasts an NFLX surge to $765 in the coming 12 months, Benchmark would have it fall 30.02% to $440 – though it should be noted that this forecast constitutes an upgrade from the previous target of $425.
Ultimately, the average price target constitutes a 0.82% downside to $623.60.
Netflix stock price chart
Whether the analysts’ attitudes prove correct or not, Netflix has, in recent times, recorded exceptional growth. Indeed, the stock is 89.95% in the green in the last 52 weeks and rose 34.21% since the start of 2024.
More recent performance has also been positive – though not as decisive – with NFLX climbing 2.90% in the last 30 days with significant volatility and 0.54% on the weekly chart.
Netflix’s stock market performance during the last trading day has seen it climb 1.65% to the latest closing price of $628.78, and NFLX price today stands at $627.66 after a 0.18% extended session fall.
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