Netflix Falls Short of Q4 Subscriber Target, Stock Tumbles on Weak Forecast
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix ended 2021 with a slightly lower-than-expected subscriber gain in the fourth quarter, and its stock took a dive with a weak Q1 outlook.The streaming giant reported a net gain of 8.28 million subscribers for Q4, again driven by markets outside North America, to reach 221.8 million total worldwide.
Netflix previously forecast 8.5 million paid net adds while Wall Street analysts expected 8.3 million, according to FactSet.Click here to sign up for Variety‘s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news, and more.Netflix shares fell more than 13% in after-hours trading, as the company forecast 2.5 million net subscriber adds for the first quarter of 2022.
For Q1, Wall Street analysts had been projecting a gain of 7.25 million subscribers, per FactSet. Netflix reported Q4 revenue of $7.71 billion (up 16%), in line with Wall Street expectations, and beat forecasts on net income with $607 million (or $1.33 per share) versus analyst consensus estimates of EPS of 82 cents.For the full year 2021, Netflix’s paid net adds totaled 18 million — less than half the 37 million it picked up in 2020.
More than 90% of the net adds last year came from outside the U.S./Canada region.The earnings report comes on the heels of Netflix’s Jan.
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