Investing.com – Shares of Netflix fell in afterhours trade Monday, as the company added fewer subscribers than expected and forward guidance fell short of expectations.
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported earnings-per-share of 40 cents on revenue of $2.64 billion, which was roughly in line with expectations but its subscriber growth fell short of Wall Street estimates.
Netflix added a total of 4.95 million subscribers – 1.42 million domestic (U.S.) and 3.53 million international subscribers –which fell short expectations for total net add of 5.13 million subscribers.
Subscriber growth is a key metric that analysts use to gauge Netflix’s performance. Recently, many analysts focused on slowing subscriber growth in Netflix’s core market, the U.S.
Netflix rose to an intraday record high at the end of March, as investors piled into stock ahead of earnings on expectations that the Californian-based company would surpassed the 100 million subscriber mark, when it revealed first quarter results.
Netflix cited the impact of moving content (primarily House of Cards season 5) from Q1 to Q2, as one of factors that contributed to the weaker than expected subscriber growth for the first quarter.
“The other effect of the content moves is lower net adds in Q1 compared to prior year” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders.
Netflix fell by 3% in after-hours trade but pared losses to trade at $146.75, down 0.34%.