Netflix’s $2.89Bln Middle Finger Sends Shares Soaring After Beating the Brakes off Earnings…

So it appears Netflix just told Wall Street to stop obsessing over subscriber numbers and start paying attention to what actually matters: money. And somehow, it worked. 

(Source: Giphy) 

With their latest earnings clinic, Netflix beat the MF brakes off expectations—$10.54 billion in revenue (up 13% year-over-year) and earnings per share of $6.61, compared to the $5.71 analysts were hoping for. Oh, and net income came in at a bigly $2.89 billion. In one quarter. 

The crazy part about this “dunkin’ on dem hoes” moment is that this was the first quarter Netflix decided not to share subscriber growth at all. They just noped out of the metric that the entire streaming industry has been swooning over for the last decade. There was no “we added X million new users.” No “here’s how many people are still riding their ex's login.” None of that. Instead, it was all “shut up and look at the revenue.” 

(Source: CNBC) 

The company pulled this off by doing what everyone else is too scared to: raising prices and saying deal with it. In January, they jacked up the price of their standard plan to $17.99, premium to $24.99, and the ad-supported tier to $7.99. And guess what? People didn’t cancel. Because in a world where traditional media is imploding and live TV is a joke, Netflix is still the one thing people will religiously follow the Dave Ramsey “beans and rice” diet to keep.

They also finally launched their in-house ad tech platform, because letting third-party vendors siphon off ad revenue is for deadbeats. Netflix wants full control of the ad stack, the data, and the profits. They’re not trying to be a streamer with ads; they’re trying to be a f*ing advertising machine that happens to stream content. And while absolutely not shocking to anyone, they are doing a hell of a job with it. 

My life be like… (Source: Giphy) 

But, but, but… what about tariffs and economic uncertainty? Yeah, what about them? Co-CEO Greg Peters got on the earnings call and all but said, “We’re not worried.” When asked about Trump’s tariff chaos, inflation, consumer spending, and the general economic doom loop, Peters shrugged and reminded everyone that people still watch TV when the world’s on fire. “Entertainment has been pretty resilient,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world (because it is). When the economy tanks, people don’t stop bingeing. They just stop going out. 

What’s more is that earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal leaked that Netflix is now chasing a $1 trillion valuation by 2030. Which isn’t too much of a big deal considering that every tech company with a pulse is trying to hit that holy grail number. But unlike most of the other clowns swinging at it, Netflix actually has a business model that prints money and doesn’t rely on vibes or political mood swings. 

(Source: Giphy) 

So yeah, in the end, Netflix blew past expectations, raised prices, flipped off the subscriber metric, and reminded everyone that it’s still the main character in a streaming landscape full of broke-a$$ background actors. And the market? Well, it loved it. The stock popped another 2% in after-hours because of it. 

Say what you want about content, competition, or whatever… Netflix is still the king and the one in the room making real money (and not apologizing for it). Meaning, continue to keep your eyes on Netflix and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends…

P.S. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you liked getting rekt. Let’s face it, retail investors get the short end of the stick all day everyday. It’s the smart money’s world, and we are just living in it–only useful when it comes to liquidity purposes in the market. Meaning, if you’re as pissed off as I was when I found out Milli Vanilli was lip syncing the whole time, then it’s time to go from investing blind, to investing smart. Luckily for you, the key is right here as a Stocks.News premium member. Click here to see exactly how our premium members are printing while others quake in the face of today’s market chaos. 

Stocks.News does not hold positions in Netflix as mentioned in the article.