Netflix may be poised for even more gains ahead with the company at its peak financial position, according to Evercore ISI. Seeing a “very strong” catalyst path, analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated his outperform rating on the streaming giant and hiked his price target by $175 to $950. That implies more than 7% upside from Friday’s close. “[A]t a high level, what our survey results and recent events (e.g. Q3 EPS and the massive success of the Tyson-Paul fight) suggest is that Netflix is in the strongest position financially, fundamentally and competitively that we have ever seen,” he told clients this week. “Its overall Streaming leadership – in terms of both market share and content quality – is commanding.” The recent survey results revealed that “core Netflix” metrics in the U.S., France and Germany were “reasonably positive,” Mahaney noted. In fact, the survey found that churn intent – a user’s desire to end their Netflix subscription – saw noticeable improvement in all three markets, signaling growth potential in its subscription business. Moreover, the survey found that Netflix’s content quality lead has widened over Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. This comes as Netflix’s live events are already gaining traction. Last month’s boxing match between boxing legend Mike Tyson and social media star Jake Paul was the most-streamed sporting event ever , the company said, recording 108 million total live viewers from around the world. “While astute industry observers have plausibly made the case that splashy live events such as Paul v. Tyson serve primarily as marketing and customer acquisition drivers, our survey results in Q4 continued to suggest that live events might serve as an even more powerful retention driver,” the analyst also said. “When we asked current NFLXers if they would be more or less likely to keep NFLX if NFLX adds more live content, 47% responded that they would be more likely to keep the service.” With that, Mahaney cited the platform’s Christmas Day NFL games, the release of Squid Games II later this month, the inclusion of WWE Raw in January and pending price increases as catalysts for growth. Mahaney’s bullish call is among the majority on Wall Street who have a similar stance. Of the 48 analysts covering the name, 32 have a strong buy or buy rating, according to LSEG data. By contrast, 14 analysts have taken a neutral stance with a hold rating. The stock has also vastly outperformed the broader market this year, posting year-to-date gains more than three times that of the S & P 500 at around 82%. Shares were marginally higher in the premarket on Monday following his call.
