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Takeaways
- Investors have driven up Netflix’s stock price ahead of the release of its first-quarter earnings scheduled for Thursday after the bell.
- Shares have leapt 5.6% since last week amid bullish notes from analysts and a Journal story on the company's ambitious goals.
- VisibleAlpha’s consensus estimates indicate that analysts expect Netflix to report revenue of $2.47 billion, which is a 6% rise from last year.
Investors have been buying shares of Netflix, sending the streaming giant's stock higher ahead of its scheduled earnings release this evening.
Netflix (NFLX), shares traded at about $970 on Thursday morning. This is up more than 5 percent from Friday’s close and more than 1 percent today. (Read Investopedia’s live coverage of the trading today here.) Bullish research and a Wall Street Journal story discussing growth targets have appeared to have boosted the optimism in the streaming company.
The earnings report will be closely watched by traders. Options prices suggest that the update could send Netflix’s share price up or down up to 8.5%.
Analysts have praised Netflix’s ability in a downturn to withstand it. JPMorgan has described it as “most resilient” of the companies it tracks. Netflix has also been attracting attention for its efforts to double revenue and achieve a $1 trillion market capitalization by 2030. The Journal reported on this earlier this week.
VisibleAlpha estimates that analysts expect Netflix’s first-quarter revenue to be $10.5 billion, an increase of 12% from the previous year. VisibleAlpha predicts a 6% increase in net income year-over-year, to $2.47 billion.
Netflix shares have been rising steadily for months and have risen 58% in the last year.