Netflix Profit Tops View On Subscriber Growth, Shares Up 8%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Monday gained over 8 percent in extended trading session after the online-video streaming service reported a fourth-quarter profit that trumped analysts estimates, driven largely by higher-than-expected subscriber additions both domestically and internationally.

Netflix added 7.05 million subscribers globally in the quarter, easily beating its forecast of 5.20 million, to end the quarter with 93.80 million subscribers. The company added 1.93 customers in the U.S. during the quarter, well below its estimates of 1.45. International subscriber additions were 5.12 million, far above its expectation of 3.75 million.

Looking forward to the first quarter, Netflix expects to add 5.20 million memberships, with 1.50 million in the U.S. and 3.70 million internationally.

"This was the largest quarter of net additions in our history and was driven by strong acquisition trends in both our US and International segments," the company said.

The video-streaming service provider is currently focusing on international expansion as it faces strong competition in the US. Currently, over 47% of its total members are now outside of the US.

However, Netflix's international expansion has come with higher expenses, as marketing costs increased to $285.0 million from $224.2 million, while technology and development expenses rose to $225.2 million from $180.9 million last year.

Los Gatos, California-based Netflix's fourth-quarter profit rose to $66.7 million or $0.15 per share from $43.2 million or $0.10 per share last year. On average, 37 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.14 per share for the quarter.

Netflix's revenues for the quarter rose to $2.48 billion from $1.82 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.47 billion for the quarter.

For the first quarter, Netflix expects earnings of $0.37 per share, well above $0.18 per share expected by analysts.

NFLX closed Wednesday's trading at $133.26, up $0.37 or 0.28%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $11.10 or 8.33% in the after-hours trade.