Goldman Sachs has a slightly more optimistic outlook on Netflix now. Analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded shares to neutral from sell. While he also increased his price target from $230 to $400, that still represents downside of more than 9% from Monday’s close. The bank based its prior sell recommendation on a series of anticipated headwinds, including a post-pandemic normalization in subscriber growth, increased competition in the streaming industry and subscriber performance pressure from its password sharing crackdown measures. However, Sheridan stated in a Tuesday client note that “NFLX [management] has executed its password sharing initiative in excess of our prior assumptions, has regained content creation momentum in a manner that has muted any post-pandemic growth headwinds and overall industry competition has become more muted (especially from traditional media companies) in the past six months.” To be sure, the analyst added that the muted Neutral rating reflects Goldman’s “continued low visibility into the pathway to that upside node.” That said, he acknowledged that shares are not likely to underperform for “any extended period” in the coming quarters. Sheridan noted that Netflix shares have popped 135% since Goldman added Netflix to its sell list in June 2022. The streaming stock is also up nearly 50% this year. NFLX YTD mountain NFLX in 2023 Netflix is scheduled to announce its most recent quarterly earnings report July 19. Goldman anticipates Netflix’s subscriber performance to top Wall Street’s estimates. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
