The action of the American streaming giant fell 20% at the opening of the Stock Exchange on Friday January 21, following it announced lower growth in the number of its subscribers. The company expects 2.5 million additional paying users in the first quarter, analysts betting on 4 million.
Audience records and the enviable position of world number one in streaming are not enough. Netflix, announcing that the growth of its new subscribers “would slow significantly in early 2022”, did “drop the stock price by more than 20%” at the opening of Wall Street on Friday January 21, report it Financial Times.
The streaming company had waited until the closing on Thursday to give its new growth forecasts, revised downwards: the platform will not count “only 2.5 million subscribers” in the first quarter of 2022, compared to 4 million in the same period of 2021, a figure “well below analysts’ expectations, which were also 4 million”, explains the British daily.
Disappointment
As soon as trading opens in New York, “Netflix stock fell to $392.18” down more than $100 from the previous day’s closing price.
This numbers “disappointing” are “the latest setback for tech investors”, notice CNBC. They are a sign that even for the containment champion, there is “a slowdown in growth”. And this information has consequences even on its competitors: Disney shares lost 5% on Friday.
Yet Netflix’s fourth quarter 2021 results “are better than expected”, explains an analyst in the magazine The Hollywood Reporter. The problem is that this “weak prospect of subscriptions” at the beginning of 2022 is the “worse for years”.
Netflix “continues to have a lead of more than five years over its competitors” and should stay “the dominant player at the global level”, another analyst says on the contrary. Simply, it will be necessary to expect a return “slower” of action, with the end of the pandemic and the return to growth “normalized” the number of subscribers. In other words, Netflix is still number one, but a little less dreamy.
