By
Mayowa Adebajo
February 13th, 2024
In Q3 2023, Netflix finalized a share buyback of about $2.5 billion and increased its repurchase authorization by $10 billion.
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) shares closed Wednesday trading at $346.19, down 2.68 percent from the day’s opening price. The losses were quickly erased during the after-hours with a spike of about 12.51 percent to trade around $389.51. The sudden rebound was due to the third-quarter earnings results that beat analysts expectations. According to the company’s Q3 2023 earnings report, the third quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $3.73 whereas analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv, expected Netflix to report an EPS of $3.49.m citing the three months. Additionally, the company’s revenue for the quarter met analysts’ expectations of about $8.54 billion fueled by new global subscribers.
The American streaming company added 8.76 million global subscribers during the third quarter, beating Wall Street’s expectations of 5.49 million, according to a survey conducted by Street Account. Notably, the company’s net add for global subscribers for the third quarter was the highest since the second quarter of 2020 – during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – when Netflix recorded 10.1 million new subscribers.
Netflix Financial Statements for Q3 2023
Having seen a spike of about 8 percent YoY in revenue during the third quarter, Netflix announced that it expects its financial year 2023 free cash flow to come in around $6.5 billion, up from its prior forecast of about $5 billion. In Q3 2023, Netflix finalized a share buyback of about $2.5 billion and increased its repurchase authorization by $10 billion, in a bid to reward the loyal investors.
Netflix announced that its ads plan continued to obtain more traction both in the United States and around the world. Notably, the company’s ads plan of about $6.99 per month recorded a 70 percent growth QoQ in different counties. Moreover, the company’s top-rated licensed originals including Top Boy S3, The Witcher S3, and One Piece S1 recorded notable viewership during the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the company is anticipating reaching a deal with the Hollywood writers along with other members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on a higher wage based on streaming popularity. Moreover, the AMPTP is yet to finalize the negotiations with the streaming company.
“We spent hours and hours with SAG-AFTRA over the last few weeks and we were actually very optimistic that we were making progress,” said co-CEO Ted Sarandos during the company’s taped earnings comments Wednesday. “But then at the very end of our last session together the guild presented this new demand on top of everything of a per-subscriber levy, unrelated to viewing or success, and this really broke our momentum unfortunately.”