Netflix had its first real stinker of a quarter, losing subscribers for the first time ever and forced to warn of a coming bloodbath for password-sharers. The stock is down 35% in a day, wiping $50bn off the company's market value.
"After what can only be called a shocking 1Q subscriber miss and weak subscriber & financial guidance we reduced our subscriber forecasts and pushed back our profitability forecasts substantially," Pivotal analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote in a Tuesday note. The firm downgraded the stock to sell from buy.
Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a Wednesday note that downgraded the stock to equal weight that "negative sub growth and investments to reaccelerate revenues are the nail in the NFLX narrative coffin, in our view."
Reactionaries are blaming it on "woke" content but given that the top shows in America are about gay pirates and how work-life-balance is capitalism's creepiest lie and you can't watch either of those shows on Netflix, maybe it has more to do with the price hikes, mature competion and endless stream of cheapass junk like "Is It Cake?"
And to rub it in, Netflix has canceled its production of Jeff Smith's Bone.
