Shares of Netflix have come under pressure today as the company's CFO speaks at a Bank of America conference.
CFO Spencer Neumann offered a soft guide on operating margins in the 18-20% range, which suggests it will be tough to meet the consensus at 19.8%. He tried to soften that by saying that Netflix is 'nowhere near' peak margins but shares fell 3.6%.
Neumann also cautioned that it's 'not easy' to build an advertising business from scratch. The company has rolled out an ad-supported tier and he says a 'healthy proportion' of accounts are going in that direction. However he qualified that by saying that the ad business 'is not that material yet', which is another negative for the shares.
On live sports, he indicated that's not something the company will be investing in, at least not in any of the big ticket sports. He said it's hard to see a return on an investment of billions of dollars.
The selling in NFLX stock isn't weighing heavily on broader market averages. The Nasdaq Composite remains 0.4% higher on the day as a 1.9% gain in Amazon and a 1.6% climb in Nvidia push in the positive direction.
Technically, NFLX shares have support at $400 and just below. That's the August low and a fall beyond it would be the worst level since late May. Shares have largely chopped sideways in the past three months aside from a brief earning spike. Perhaps the failure to hold the post-earnings gain was a tell for the shares, which have struggled to hold above $450 on repeated attempts.
A break lower would target the $375 range, where there should be more support.
On margins, the company is noting that most of its growth is outside the US and that's something of a headwind, as most markets have lower prices than the US. The company is undoubtedly trying to build market share, especially with the struggles of Disney+.
