Media-streaming innovator Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has been swimming against the broader market currents recently. Industry giants such as Walt Disney and Comcast are trading closer to their yearly lows than to 52-week highs. But Netflix is hovering just below a recently notched record price, posting robust gains in the last week, month, and year.
The company is slated to report first-quarter results on Thursday evening. If I knew for sure what Netflix’s management would say and how the report will move the stock, I’d be very rich in a hurry. However, I can give you some insight into how Netflix is operating nowadays, and what’s likely to happen after the report.
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Sound good? OK, here’s what I see.
Netflix has been smacking home runs in every recent earnings report. It has beaten analysts’ earnings and revenue targets in each of the last four financial updates, often by very comfortable margins. The year-ago report was particularly inspiring; Netflix exceeded Wall Street’s consensus bottom-line estimates and its own guidance by 17%.
So Netflix’s business is humming on every cylinder. The ad-supported subscription plans and family sharing accounts are pulling their weight. Live sporting events are a hit. Revenue growth is stronger than anticipated and profit margins are growing wider.
But wait — there’s more.
A Wall Street Journal article earlier this week said that Netflix’s top management recently shared an ambitious five-year plan with some upper-level staff members. Revenue should double over the next five years. Annual ad sales were targeted at $9 billion, up from an estimated $2.1 billion in 2025. Double the revenue and richer profit margins could add up to tripling Netflix’s operating income to $30 billion.
Achieving these goals in five years may give Netflix a card to the ultra-exclusive trillion-dollar market cap club. As a reminder, the company’s total market value stood at $418 billion on April 15, 2025.
That article goosed Netflix’s stock a little closer to that elusive trillion-dollar target. Shares closed Tuesday’s trading 4.8% higher while the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) fell 0.3%.
These lofty business targets are particularly inspiring since they were stated in a period of unstable economic trends and gloomy consumer confidence. The must-have digital media service may be insulated against these macro trends to some degree, but ad sales automatically get tougher when no one is ready to buy the stuff you’re advertising.