Netflix(NASDAQ: NFLX) continued to deliver strong revenue and earnings when it reported its Q1 results in April 2025. The video streaming company doesn't plan to stop there, predicting strong growth in the years ahead.
In this current tumultuous market, the stock has had a solid year, up more than 10%, as of this writing on April 21. That easily tops the approximate 12% decline in the S&P 500 over the same period.
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Netflix has been a proven long-term winner, with the stock up more than 1,100% over the past decade. Below, I'll look at Netflix's Q1 results to see if the stock is poised to continue being a winner in the coming years.
Solid, resilient growth
Advertising is expected to be a big priority for Netflix this year. The company recently launched a new proprietary adtech platform in the U.S. and Canada and plans to expand it to 10 more markets in the coming months. Its new adtech platform will help advertisers better target audiences and improve ad relevance.
Overall, Netflix is looking to double its ad revenue this year. A combination of upfront, scatter market, and programmatic advertising will drive this increase. Upfronts are advanced sales that were common in traditional linear TV, while scatter market ads are sold closer to viewing periods, and programmatic is the automated buying and selling of ad inventory.
Netflix's focus on advertising won't stop there, as it will add more data targeting capabilities, especially globally, in 2026, as well as more measurement functionality. Then in 2027, it will look toward specific-focused investments, such as machine learning-based optimizations. It also plans to develop new types of ad formats.
Management also thinks the company's new lower-priced ad-based pricing tiers will help insulate it from any forthcoming economic weakness. The reason is that its starting price point for these tiers is modest, while it's just starting to move into advertising on a greater scale. However, the company highlighted that entertainment historically tends to be pretty resilient during these periods.
Internally, Netflix is looking to double its revenue and triple its operating income by 2030. However, this isn't a forecast, and the company said it was disappointed that these internal measures were leaked to the press.
Turning to its results, Netflix's revenue rose 13% to $10.54 billion, which was just ahead of the $10.52 billion analyst consensus as compiled by LSEG. U.S. and Canada revenue increased by 9%, while European revenue climbed 16%, Latin American revenue grew 8%, and Asia-Pacific revenue soared 23%.
Earnings per share (EPS) jumped 25% to $6.61. That easily topped the $5.71 analyst consensus.
Looking ahead, Netflix forecasts Q2 revenue to climb 15% with a 33% operating margin. It expects U.S. and Canada revenue growth to reaccelerate, driven by recent subscription price increases and advertising.
For the full year, the company maintained its guidance for revenue of between $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion, with a 29% operating margin. However, it noted with the recent weak dollar that it was currently tracking above the midpoint of its 2025 revenue guidance range.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is Netflix stock a Buy?
Investors are currently finding solace in Netflix stock as a relatively defensive growth stock. The company's not directly affected by tariffs, and its advertising platform is too new to see a major impact from an ad slowdown. Meanwhile, at-home streaming entertainment is much cheaper than going out to dinner and/or the movies, so it's a relatively cheap luxury. A subscription is also much less than the cost of linear TV.
In the future, advertising is likely going to play a much larger role for the company. Netflix is smartly investing in a new adtech program, as this will be a big future revenue growth driver. With such a large captive audience and increasing live content on its platform, such as WWE's popular Monday Night Raw, all the ingredients are there for Netflix to become a future digital-advertising leader.
Trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 39 times analyst estimates for 2025, the stock is far from the bargain bin. However, I think Netflix will continue to be a long-term winner as it incorporates more advertising into its platform. As such, investors can begin accumulating the stock at current levels but should consider being more aggressive on a dip.
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Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
