Hastings leaves his role as co-CEO as Netflix surges forward in Q4

The last few months have been positive ones for the Netflix share price, having hit 5-year lows back in May last year, the shares have surged over 75% since then, although they are still over 50% below the record highs seen in 2021.

Q4 revenues beat expectations, coming in at $7.85bn, as did paid subscriber numbers which blew through forecasts, coming in at 7.66m rising to 230.75m, an increase of 4% year on year, with 3.2m coming from the EMEA region.

Having finished the day lower yesterday, last night’s results saw the share price rebound strongly in after-hours trading, with the big test of whether it can sustain that move when US trading reopens later today.

With such a big increase in subscriber numbers, it’s perhaps surprising that revenues weren’t higher, which suggests that perhaps there was some cannibalization because of the roll-out of the new ad tier service.

Profits on the other hand came in short at $0.12c a share, or $55m, which the company put down to a $462m unrealized loss on their euro non-denominated debt due to the depreciation of the US dollar against the euro during Q4.

Total revenue for 2022 came in at $31.62bn while operating expenses rose to $25.99bn cutting the annual operating margin to 17.8% from 20.9%.

For Q1 23 Netflix says it expects to generate revenue of $8.17bn, and profits of $1.27bn or $2.82c a share.

The company also announced that co-CEO Reed Hastings would be stepping down, and taking up the position of executive chairman, while Greg Peters would take up the vacant co-CEO position alongside Ted Sarandos.

NETFLIX TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

DAILY CHART:

In the daily chart, Netflix is currently trading in up channel.

Netflix is currently trading above 20&50 SMA.

RSI is in buying zone which shows bullishness. And stochastic is suggesting a downtrend.

Netflix’s immediate support level is at 313.70 & resistance level is at 321.98

HOW TO TRADE IN THIS WEEK

Netflix is trading in up channel; it will continue to trade upside until any trend reversal so, remain bullish on it.

TRADE SUGGESTION: BUY AT 315.74, TARGET AT 327.21, SL AT 309.51