UBS Upgrades Netflix before Q4 Earnings

UBS Upgrades Netflix before Q4 Earnings ## Netflix Netflix (NFLX) seems to be back in January after ending the previous three consecutive months in negative territory. At around 12:40 PM ET, the company’s stock posted a high for the day so far of $340.96, which was about 5.0% up from the previous day’s closing. Before today’s gains, NFLX was already up 21.3% month-to-date. ## Today’s optimism On Thursday after the market closed, UBS analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold” and raised his price target on the company to $410 from $400, reported CNBC. In his note to clients, Sheridan said, “With content spend now at a scale of the major media companies and titles continuing to demonstrate outsized marketplace success, we see the moat around NFLX’s global positioning widening and its long-term secular winner status remaining intact.” Last week, Goldman Sachs also expressed its positive views on Netflix and reiterated its price target of $400. According to another CNBC report, Goldman analyst Heath Terry said, “We believe Netflix represents one of the best risk/reward propositions in the Internet sector.” The analyst also praised the online media provider’s “investment in content, technology, and distribution,” which he thinks should “drive subscriber growth well above consensus expectations” globally. ## Previous upgrades Goldman’s target of $400 reflected 23.2% upside potential in Netflix stock from Thursday’s closing price while UBS’s new target reflected 26.3% upside. The recent Wall Street analyst upgrades ahead of Netflix’s fourth-quarter results are helping it soar. The company is slated to release its fourth-quarter results next week on January 17. Today at 1:45 PM ET, other tech stocks (SPY)(QQQ) Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), NVIDIA (NVDA), Facebook (FB), Intel (INTC), and Microsoft (MSFT) were down 1.5%, down 1.1%, down 1.8%, up 1.8%, down 0.1%, up 0.9%, and down 1.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, digital media player maker Roku (ROKU) was down 1.6%. Subscribe now to Market Realist Pro and receive our newsletters The Thirty Percent and Disruptors & Innovators, featuring stock recommendations from our CEO, JP Gravitt, and market strategist Joey Solitro.