Netflix On Fire: Tops 10M Subs; Up 600K Year To Date

Netflix (NFLX) shares are trading higher today after the company this morning announced that it has passed the 10 million subscriber mark, adding more than 600,000 net subs since January 1. The company is clearly getting a boost from increasing availability of streaming movies from Netflix on the Web as well as through consumer electronics devices  like LG and Samsung Blu-Ray players, Microsoft ’s Xbox 360 game console, the Roku digital video box and some TiVo DVRs. Netflix reiterated its previous forecast that it will end Q1 with 10.1 million to 10.3 million subs, and that it will finished the year with 10.6 million to 11.3 million subs. (So, uh, given that the company finished December with 9.39 million subs, and added 600,000 in the first half of Q1, you have to conclude either that the company sees a big slowdown in the second half of the quarter, or that the guidance is too conservative. If they continued growing at the recent rate, they should add another 600,000 ... (link)