Netflix (NFLX), the streaming behemoth, will announce its fourth-quarter 2021 upcoming earnings on January 20.
Netflix’s stock has increased by roughly 6% in the last year, and it now trades at around $526. Increased competition in the streaming industry, on the other hand, might slow the company’s subscriber growth rate in the fourth quarter.
Here, we’ve used TipRanks’ Website Traffic tool to try to get a sense of the company’s current state ahead of the Q4 report. The tool assists in detecting the direction of a company’s internet traffic.
Netflix’s Website Traffic is on the Rise
During the fourth quarter of 2021, we witnessed a rise in traffic to Netflix’s website.
In Q4, the total number of unique visitors increased by 0.10% year-over-year and 3% sequentially. Further, the number of unique visitors increased 4.4% on a monthly basis in December.
This does provide us some information about the company’s fourth-quarter results. Higher website views, while not necessarily translating into greater sales, do suggest that more consumers or potential customers have visited the site to learn more about its products and services.
Examining User Location in Relation to Region
To acquire additional information from the website traffic statistics, we may look at the data by region.
The United States accounted for 36.5% of total user traffic in December. Korea, on the other hand, accounted for 7.7% of all visitors, placing it second after the United Kingdom (5.1%). On the other side, countries like India, Germany, and the Netherlands each accounted for less than 5% of overall user traffic.
Analysts’ Opinion about Q4
Recently, Netflix’s price target has just been slashed by the majority of analysts, who forecast weaker-than-expected results in the fourth quarter.
Concerned about Q4 results, UBS analyst John Hodulik decreased his subscriber net additions prediction to 7.0 million from the 8.9 million originally projected and 8.5 million expected by management.
He writes, “We believe net additions accelerated in Q4 but came in below management’s guide” as the impetus waned over the quarter owing to Squid Games’ late debut. He also feels that, despite the excellent content slate, the seasonal pick-up in December was weaker than in previous years, suggesting that the “industry is still digesting outsized growth from the pandemic.”
As a result, he maintained a Buy rating but decreased the price target to $690.00 from $720.00.
On the plus side, Loop Capital Markets analyst Alan Gould believes the current decline is an “excellent setup leading into NFLX’s earnings next week.” He maintained a Buy rating and a $700.00 per share price objective.
Wall Street’s Cautious Stance
The rest of the analysts on Wall Street are cautious about Netflix stock. According to TipRanks’ consensus rating, Netflix stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 23 Buys, 5 Holds, and 3 Sells. Netflix’s stock projections show an average price target of $662.93. This implies almost 26.1% upside potential from the current levels.
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