As funny as these memes are, I think the mood at Netflix is a lot more serious. The company is taking a beating on Wall Street. Shares of the streaming giant have plummeted 52% since reaching record highs in November 2021. So far, 2022 has not aided the slump, with the price down a whopping 45% year-to-date.
"The concern is the growth outlook," Dave Heger, Edward Jones senior equity analyst, told Yahoo Finance Live, citing the company's disappointing subscriber outlook as a catalyst for the sell-off.
In its latest earnings report, Netflix said it expects to add 7 million paying members in the current quarter, short of the 7.82 million consensus analysts expected. That would also mark a 27% decline from the 9.6 million subscribers Netflix added in the year-ago quarter, which had been an all-time high for quarterly paid net additions.
Still, Heger pointed out that now might be a good time for investors to buy the dip.
"The valuation is now looking more attractive than what we saw last year," the analyst said. He added that current market levels are providing a "good opportunity to be buying the shares."
"Certainly there's been some question of what is the longer-term growth outlook for Netflix, and those expectations have been pulled back quite a bit, [but Netflix remains] a company where we still see opportunity" for worldwide subscriber growth, Heger continued.
The analyst went on to credit the streaming giant's expanded presence in international markets, in addition to its ability to raise prices to account for "growing content and the growing value of its service" as upside potential for further market penetration and success.
The platform has also pursued mergers and acquisitions in order to compete within the crowded media landscape. Compared to its streaming counterparts, Netflix "has been a little more active on the M&A front," Heger highlighted.
"As of late, the company appears to be wanting to add content within the gaming space, and they've talked much more about raising its profile in online gaming. That's a new way to add value to Netflix subscribers and could perhaps help justify the price increases that they have made over time," he explained.
In the US, the company’s standard plan rose to $15.50 per month earlier this year.
But prices for Netflix services have steadily gone up. The standard plan went to $14 per month from $13 in late 2020, after previously rising to $13 from $11 in 2019. Prior to that, Netflix raised prices in 2017 and 2015.
Interestingly, when the company announced its first wide-scale price increase in 2014, it was so worried about losing subscribers over a $1 per month bump that it let existing members keep their price for two years. It hasn’t offered such a generous perk in the years since, though.
But right now, many businesses are experimenting with price increases to combat inflationary headwinds.
Despite fears of an impending recession, Heger theorized that Netflix has the capacity to weather any economic storm, as consumers generally cut out-of-home entertainment first.
"At least historically, we've seen in the traditional pay-TV world that subscribers tend to hold on to at-home entertainment ... even in more difficult times," he concluded.