Wall Street Pauses After Netflix Earnings Announcement

Shares of Netflix (NFLX) may need work through another quarter before the shares can build on its nearly 23% stock price gains in 2014.

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The company’s quarterly profit more than doubled, boosted by strong growth in U.S. and international subscribers. While the company did move forward on raising its prices, management did disclose that it sees expected average revenue per user to rise slowly as it wins over more subscribers at the new prices.

The company’s profit rose to $71 million, or $1.15 per share, from $29.5 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales rose to $1.34 billion from $1.07 billion. Analysts on average had expected $1.16 per share in profit on revenue of $1.34 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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Mutual Funds with Large NetFlix Holdings

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American Funds AMCAP Fund Class A (AMCPX) owns the largest mutual fund position in Netflix shares, amounting to 1.95M shares or 3.26% of outstanding shares.

American Funds SMALLCAP World Fund Class A (SMCWX) made Netflix its largest position, with nearly 1M shares or 1.63% of the fund’s assets.

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The Bottom Line

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Shares of Netflix are up nearly 8-fold from the company’s mass exodus of customers in 2011 following an unpopular price increase. Kudos to the mutual fund managers that stepped in and saw the major sell-off as a buying opportunity.