Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) just released its earnings report right after closing bell, and in less than 10 minutes, the stock was up 25 percent and still climbing rapidly. It passed the $100 per share mark and went on to hit its highest price in over a year. At the time of this writing, the stock was up 32 percent in post-market trades and still rising. The company’s earnings report is even better than analysts at Wedbush were expecting, and they were aiming at the “high end of guidance.”
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported $945 million in revenue, compared to the consensus of $934.5 million in revenue. The company smashed expectations for earnings per share, coming in at 13 cents per share on the positive side, compared to expectations of a loss of 13 cents per share.
The company reported fourth quarter profits of $8 million and the addition of 2.05 million new video streaming subscribers in the U.S. in the fourth quarter. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) ended 2012 with a total of 27.15 million subscribers for its video streaming service in the U.S. The company’s guidance for the quarter indicated that it expected the addition of only 1.3 to 2 million streaming subscribers in the quarter.
The company’s first quarter guidance for 2013 indicated earnings per share between 0 and 23 cents per share. Analysts were expecting the company to guide for a loss of 7 cents per share. The company predicts $1.03 billion in sales, while analysts predicted $969.2 million.
Analysts had been expecting Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) to disappoint investors for several reasons. There has been speculation that the deal it made with The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was too expensive and brought too little content to Netflix’s service. However at this point it certainly looks like consumers, at least, are responding to the deals the company has made.
