While Netflix added more new users than analysts had expected in the first quarter with 6.74 million signing up for the streaming service. The bulk of these new customers came from overseas as the growth in the U.S., while far from saturated, has slowed. However, shares are presently falling based on the company revealing that new membership in this quarter is far from rosy.
Netflix earnings in depth
Ahead of today’s after-bell earnings call, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Prime confirmed Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings’ predictions from a few years back.
“We expect Amazon to continue to offer their video service as a free extra with Prime domestically but also to brand their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours,” the Netflix CEO told his investors in a quarterly update in 2012.
Well, today that happened with Amazon announcing its streaming service at $9 a month without a Prime membership. That’s a dollar cheaper than Netflix and may have been responsible for the stock losing $3.11 or 2.79% closing at $108.40 in trading today.
While Netflix had projected new user numbers to reach 2.5 million, the 6.7 million announced was not enough to stop a further slide in after-hours trading following today’s earnings call.
Netflix is now claiming 81.5 million subscribers globally after a global blitz in new markets announced in January.
The company has now missed its domestic new membership numbers for three consecutive quarter. Unlike overseas, Netflix’s competitors are growing in the United States with the presence of Sling TV, Hulu, Time Warner’s HBO NOW and others.
It wasn’t all bleak, Thomas Reuters’ analyst consensus projected a profit of $0.03 on $1.97 billion in revenue.
While the consensus got the revenue numbers nearly spot on with NFLX reporting $1.96 billion up form $1.57 billion year-over-year for the same period they missed badly on earnings per share. Netflix reported an EPS of $0.06 on a profit of $27.66 million or $0.07 with certain items excluded.
NFLX is getting hammered presently (4:37PM EDT) in after hours trading, though it should be said that it has gained a lot back having fallen nearly 15% after the earnings call.
After-hours sees NFLX at $98.34 down over $10.00 per share for a loss of 9.25%
