Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock may be pricey, but it still has more room to grow, angel investor Jason Calacanis told CNBC’s Squawk Alley. The expert said Netflix’s deal with Comcast may have been a “white flag” for the cable giant. This is a positive sign for the streaming giant despite concerns that “we’ve reached peak television with the number of shows growing beyond what the base can actually consume.”
Netflix: pricey but attractive
Calacanis noted that cable companies live in a constant fear of viewers cutting the cord and opting only for video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Apple TV, and Hulu.
“Comcast is just very scared, scared to death that people are going to those other options more often,” he said.
In a note on Wednesday, Jefferies downgraded the stock to Underperform from Hold, citing weakness in U.S. subscriber growth. However, Calacanis says secular trends make Netflix an attractive investment option, provided investors are OK with the stock’s near-term price-to-earnings ratio of 326.29 on a trailing 12-month basis. The expert referred to the streaming giant as a “juggernaut of a business” which is not “going anywhere.”
For now, the streaming giant may be expensive and could face intense competition, but five or ten years down the line, “Netflix will have hundreds of millions, a quarter billion, 500 million subscribers in the United States and internationally combined,” Calacanis said.
Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves supports this view, saying that the winner will be the biggest and most scaled player, and currently that “looks like Netflix to us.”
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) – International subscriber base a huge catalyst
Calacanis believes the the streaming giant’s real strength will be its international subscriber base. The experts see a lot of potential in the segment, saying “the international story is in the very beginning of the first inning.” Calacanis says Netflix is a well-managed company as not many companies can achieve the feat of launching in so many countries at once.
Senior Media and Entertainment Equity Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence Tuna Amobi says the Comcast deal is a “very big development.” He told Squawk Alley that the deal will help the streaming giant “grab some of the low-hanging fruit and be able to mitigate the potential decline in a domestic subscriber base.”
On Wednesday, Netflix shares closed down 3.38% at $94.60. Year to date, the stock is down almost 19%, while in the last year, it is up just 1%. The stock has a 52-week high of $133.27 and a 52-week low of $79.95.
