One investor read Netflix earnings and tweeted: “Netflix and puke.”
The play an the urban slang expression — to watch “Netflix and chill” — reflected investor sentiment after the company guided to just 500,000 domestic additions in the current quarter, and 2 million overseas. Analysts were forecasting 600,000 domestic additions instead.
The company said that the 500,000 figure was in line with the quarter from prior years, but investors still believe that price hikes and increased competition will hurt Netflix in the coming months. The stock fell off a cliff after hours, losing as much as 12 percent before rebounding during the earnings webcast.
The streaming-media giant reported an in-line quarter on revenue of $1.97 billion and earnings of 6 cents per share, beating expectations for 3 cents per share. Profits were up 16.7 percent, to $27.7 million, in the first-quarter period.
Even with the slowdown, Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings said he couldn’t wait to celebrate breaking the 100-million-subscriber mark in the next 12 months. Netflix’s current global subscriber number stands at 81 million, with hopes to reach 84 million by the end of June. The service is the biggest online subscription video platform in the world.
Netflix had 45.71 million paid users at the end of the first quarter.
On the topic of Amazon’s new stand-alone streaming service, which launched on Sunday night, Hastings had little to say. “Hulu is doing great work. Amazon, HBO, Showtime, there are so many competitors,” he said, adding that “internet TV is displacing linear TV.”
The competition from Amazon forced Netflix stock down 2.8 percent in the regular session, closing at $108.40.
Netflix’s streaming-content obligations ballooned to $12.3 billion in the current quarter. The company is to begin airing an “as-live” experiment with comedian Chelsea Handler hosting a weeknight talkshow.


