The shares of Netflix are trading higher after an analyst at Citibank upgraded his stock rating and raised her price target for the company following the debut of Marvel’s “Daredevil” on Friday.
The stock price of Netflix increased more than 3% to $453.30 at the time of this writing around 1:54 in the afternoon in New York.
In a note to investors, Citibank analyst Mark May upgraded his rating for Netflix to Buy from Neutral and raised his price target for the stock to $525 from $439 per share.
May explained that his bullish conviction about Netflix was due to” upside scenarios north of $750” partly on expansions overseas.
Long-term buying opportunity for Netflix shares
In a note to investors, the analyst also commented that the recent pullback in the shares of Netflix offers a long-term buying opportunity. The stock price of the company was negatively impacted by investors’ concern regarding the increasing competition on the online video streaming market.
May said investors shouldn’t be concern about the entry of other over-the-top (OTT) streaming companies. HBO recently launched a standalone platform while Apple also entered the online video streaming market.
The analyst pointed out the Netflix remained competitive as it continues to offer quality and original contents. He noted that the online video streaming company has more than 50 million subscribers worldwide. Daredevil, the latest series on Netflix already received positive reviews from viewers.
“We believe the risk/reward tradeoff is favorable at current levels, and we remain bullish on the company’s long-term opportunity to build a leading global OTT video service with an opportunity to attract more than 150 million paying subscribers worldwide over time,” said May.
Netflix content lineup is stronger this year
According to May, the content lineup of Netflix is stronger this year than in 2014. He said the “new year-to-date releases such as ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and ‘Daredevil’ received strong reviews, which should provide a nice backdrop to subscriber growth during the year.”
May also emphasized, “Numerous data points continue to support how disruptive Netflix is to video viewing habits and to the broader media landscape.”
Netflix is scheduled to report its first quarter financial results for the current fiscal year on April 15. Wall Street analysts expected the company to report $0.68 in earnings per share.
