Netflix Misses Sub Target by 1M; Stock Slides

Citing faulty internal forecasting, Netflix missed its U.S. and international subscriber targets by about 1 million customers in the second quarter, which immediately sent its shares southward.

Netflix added 670,000 streaming customers in the U.S. in the second quarter, about half of the 1.2 million additions the company had projected. Internationally, Netflix said it added about 4.47 million new subscribers, short of its quarterly target of 5 million additions.

Expectations were high that the SVOD pioneer would meet its targets, which at the time were considered fairly conservative.  

The miss sent Netflix stock down 13% ($51.89 per share) to $348.59 each in after-hours trading Monday.

Related: Netflix Adds 7.41 Million Streaming Subs in Q1

“We had a strong, but not stellar Q2,” the company said in a statement. “This Q2, we over-forecasted global net additions which amounted to 5.2 [million] vs. a forecast of 6.2 [million] and flat compared to Q2 a year ago, as acquisition growth was slightly lower than we projected.

Related: This Week in Netflix: Q2 Sub Expectations High

On the financial side, the numbers were strong. Revenue was up 40% in the period to $3.9 billion and the company reported a profit of $384.3 million or 85 cents per share, compared to $65.6 million or 15 cents per share in the prior year.