Imperial Capital Equities Analysts Reduce Earnings Estimates for Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) – Imperial Capital reduced their FY2018 earnings per share estimates for Netflix in a research note issued on Thursday, August 23rd, Zacks Investment Research reports. Imperial Capital analyst D. Miller now expects that the Internet television network will post earnings of $2.68 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $2.71. Imperial Capital currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $494.00 price target on the stock. Imperial Capital also issued estimates for Netflix’s Q4 2018 earnings at $0.48 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $1.13 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $4.60 EPS.

Several other brokerages have also commented on NFLX. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “buy” rating and set a $360.00 price target on shares of Netflix in a research note on Friday, June 1st. UBS Group lowered Netflix from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $425.00 to $237.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 11th. Goldman Sachs Group restated a “$375.13” rating and set a $470.00 price target on shares of Netflix in a research note on Wednesday, July 18th. Atlantic Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $413.00 price target on shares of Netflix in a research note on Monday, September 3rd. Finally, SunTrust Banks raised their price target on Netflix from $270.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and thirty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $349.82.

NFLX stock traded down $3.59 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $364.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,735,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,972,317. The firm has a market cap of $161.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 291.65, a PEG ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. Netflix has a 1 year low of $176.55 and a 1 year high of $423.21.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 16th. The Internet television network reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.05. Netflix had a return on equity of 25.66% and a net margin of 7.13%. The business had revenue of $3.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 40.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NFLX. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Netflix by 2.3% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,436,409 shares of the Internet television network’s stock worth $10,739,434,000 after purchasing an additional 619,795 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Netflix by 6.1% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 26,511,408 shares of the Internet television network’s stock worth $10,377,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,534,290 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Netflix by 12.0% during the first quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 7,794,760 shares of the Internet television network’s stock worth $2,302,183,000 after purchasing an additional 837,285 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Netflix by 2.4% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,565,543 shares of the Internet television network’s stock worth $757,733,000 after purchasing an additional 59,075 shares during the period. Finally, Edgewood Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Netflix by 2.3% during the second quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 2,523,740 shares of the Internet television network’s stock worth $987,868,000 after purchasing an additional 55,566 shares during the period. 73.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

In other Netflix news, CEO Reed Hastings sold 79,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $415.15, for a total value of $33,128,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 79,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,128,970. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel David A. Hyman sold 38,976 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.20, for a total value of $14,467,891.20. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 43,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,293,824. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 407,229 shares of company stock valued at $148,958,229. Corporate insiders own 4.29% of the company’s stock.