Netflix shares tumbled more than 10% in premarket trading on Friday after the streaming company projected another quarter of slowing revenue growth and announced plans to share less viewership information with investors, stoking fears that its era of standout growth could be coming to an end.
In what marks another step back from transparency, Netflix said it will reduce its viewing-hours reports from twice a year to just once annually beginning in 2027. That decision follows last year’s move to stop reporting subscriber counts, leaving investors with fewer tools to gauge the company’s performance as it faces mounting competition from traditional media companies and YouTube.
“Whenever you take away a data point from investors when results aren’t as good as they have been you will get punished by the market,” said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot.
If Friday’s premarket losses carry through to the closing bell, the company could shed more than $35 billion from its market value of roughly $313 billion. The stock has already fallen 44% from its all-time high reached in June 2025, including a drop of more than 20% so far this year alone.
Netflix’s unsuccessful bid to acquire Warner Bros earlier this year has added to questions about where the company’s next wave of growth will come from. Slow uptake of its ad-supported streaming option — long promoted as a major growth engine — has only deepened those concerns.
Analysts also pointed out that after a strong content year in 2025, which featured the final season of the popular sci-fi series “Stranger Things” and the South Korean hit “Squid Games,” Netflix’s content lineup for the current year looks comparatively thin, which could further drag on growth.
Retaining subscribers remains critically important for Netflix, which has long carried a higher stock valuation than rival media companies. Those competitors have smaller streaming audiences and are dealing with ongoing declines in traditional cable TV viewership.
Netflix currently trades at nearly 20 times its projected earnings over the next year, compared to 13.5 times for Walt Disney and 6.6 times for Comcast — a reflection of the premium investors have historically been willing to pay for the streaming leader.
Despite the disappointing outlook, at least 18 analysts reduced their price targets for the stock after Netflix’s revenue and earnings forecast came in below Wall Street expectations. Even so, the median analyst price target still sits roughly 40% above where the stock closed on Thursday.
“The story lacks excitement,” said Jeffrey Wlodarczak, analyst at Pivotal Research Group.
