Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares fell more than 6% in premarket Thursday following the company’s reported mixed Q2 earnings.
While EPS of $3.29 came in better than the consensus of $2.84, revenue of $8.19 billion missed the consensus estimate of $8.27B.
The year-over-year revenue growth of 3% was driven by a 6% increase in average paid membership, while ARM (Average Revenue per Membership) declined 3% year-over-year. The decline in ARM was due to limited price increases over the past 12 months (leading up to the launch of paid sharing), the timing of paid net additions (primarily late in the quarter due to the May 23 rollout of paid sharing in Q2), and a higher mix of membership growth from lower ARM countries.
The company added 5.9 million paid net subscribers in Q2 as it successfully rolled out paid sharing to more than 100 countries, representing over 80% of its total revenue. Buyside expectations were around 4M net subscriber additions.
Management expects revenue growth to accelerate in H2/23 as the company starts to see the full benefits of paid sharing plus continued steady growth in its ad-supported plan. For Q3, the company expects revenue of $8.5B, representing a 7% year-over-year growth.
BofA analysts bumped the price target by $35 to $525 per share on Buy-rated NFLX shares. The analysts said the results were "healthy."
"Within the Media ecosystem, we believe NFLX’s depth/breadth of content positions them well to withstand the production reductions," they said in a note.
Evercore ISI analysts lifted the price target to $550 per share after "a mother of a quarter." They blamed the move lower in shares on expectations correction, and not a fundamental correction.
"We remove our Tactical Underperform on NFLX and would encourage investors to buy NFLX shares on this (small) pullback."
(Additional reporting by Senad Karaahmetovic)