Netflix forecast disappoints as streaming competition looms from the likes of Apple, Disney

“Netflix Inc gave a weak forecast on Tuesday that unnerved investors just as Walt Disney Co and others prepare to escalate Hollywood’s streaming video wars, although the company’s quarterly results beat Wall Street targets,” Lisa Richwine and Vibhuti Sharma report for Reuters. “Shares of Netflix traded down about 1 percent at $355.02 in after-the-bell trading.”
“Netflix predicted it would pick up 5 million new streaming subscribers from April through June. That was below the 5.48 million consensus of industry analysts surveyed by FactSet,” Richwine and Sharma report. “‘What’s making investors nervous is that there are signs of a slowdown in the second-quarter subscriber growth,’ said Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com. ‘This is made all the more prominent by the looming threat of competition from Disney and Apple.'”
“Netflix added a record number of paid streaming customers in the first quarter, reaching a total of 148.86 million,” Richwine and Sharma report. “Netflix spent $7.5 billion on TV shows and movies for 2018, and executives have said that amount will grow in 2019. The aggressive spending has led to a tripling of the company’s debt in two years, to $10.36 billion in 2018, from $3.36 billion in 2016.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Rising debt as two heavyweights prepare to enter the ring. No wonder Netflix’s investors are nervous.