Netflix Rises on Buy Rating as Street Lauds Password Sharing Crackdown

This post was originally published on this site

Investing.com – Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares rose 2.7% in Tuesday’s trade as Argus upgraded the stock to buy with a price target of $650.

Argus’s target for Netflix is 20% higher than the stock’s current price.

The streaming giant has gone from strength to strength not just in its home market, the U.S., but also globally. While competition has grown, too, Netflix has continued to add original content to its vast portfolio, attracting millions of viewers to its streaming platform.

Netflix benefited immensely during the pandemic as people worked from home and used the time to binge watch. That habit is unlikely to wane soon.  

The company has recently taken steps to curb password sharing, a habit Citi says costs streaming companies billions of dollars. The brokerage expects that move to bear fruit.

According to StreetInsider, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet says the widespread habit of sharing online passwords to subscription video-on-demand services cuts about $25 billion a year for U.S. companies, estimating Netflix accounts for about 25% of that lost revenue.

And that’s a healthy chunk in relative revenue, as Netflix made about $25 billion in its last fiscal year.

“As streaming services move to center stage, thwarting this theft will be of growing importance for shareholders,” Bazinet wrote in his note, as reported by StreetInsider.

BofA, too, has noted that cracking down on sharing passwords could stimulate Netflix’s subscriber additions.