Netflix target raised to $230 at Stifel ahead of earnings
Stifel raises their NFLX tgt to $230 from $200. Firm forecasts 753k domestic net streaming subscriber additions in 3Q, narrowly below Street consensus of 800k and in-line with the company's forecast of 750k. For int'l streaming, they est 3.65mm net adds, in-line with consensus (3.69mm) and company guidance (3.65mm). Last quarter, Netflix exceeded its forecasted net adds by ~2mm (for a total of 5.2mm), which mgmt attributed to a strong content slate and strong global acquisition trends. Firm ests +30% y/y revenue growth in 3Q (in-line with guidance of 29.6%) as Netflix continues to benefit from last year's price increase. On the profitability side, they expect an operating margin of 6.8% in 3Q (also in-line with guidance of 6.9%). In 4Q:17, they est Netflix will add 1.6mm domestic streaming subscribers and 5.0mm int'l streaming subscribers (versus consensus of 1.6mm and 4.7mm, respectively). They slightly trimmed their ests to account for a modest amount of pricing-related churn.