Netflix reported generally positive results for first-quarter 2025, with revenue up 13% year-over-year to $10.543 billion and operating income growing by 27% to $3.347 billion. Both were ahead of the streamer’s guidance due to slight upticks in subscriptions and ad revenue and the timing of expenses.
Earnings per share hit $6.61.
The earnings topped Wall Street expectations and investors reacted generally positively to the news, with the stock up 3.03% in after-hours trading as of 7:10 p.m. ET.
This was the first quarter for Netflix’s new policy of not reporting quarterly subscriber counts.
In the U.S. and Canada, growth was slower, with revenue up 9% to $4.617 billion.
The company touted its progress in expanding its ad business, which along with price hikes, has become a key component of its future growth plans, but provided few specifics.
“As we deliver more value to members, we refine our plans and pricing to improve monetization to drive investment in future service improvements,” Netflix said. “Our ads plan allows us to offer lower price points for consumers while creating an additional revenue and profit stream for our business. We continue to make progress building our ads business. We remain on track to reach sufficient scale with our member base in all ads countries in 2025, and we expect to continue to grow our ads membership from this strong base in the future.”
It also touted the reach of its audience, which it pegged at more than 700 million globally.
The company reiterated its guidance for 2025 despite recent economic and stock market turmoil.
“We continue to forecast 2025 revenue of $43.5B-$44.5B, which assumes healthy member growth, higher subscription pricing and a rough doubling of our ad revenue, partially offset by F/X net of hedging,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders. “We’re still targeting a 29% operating margin for 2025 based on F/X rates as of Jan. 1, 2025. There’s been no material change to our overall business outlook since our last earnings report, although at current F/X rates (with the recent weakness of the U.S. dollar relative to most other currencies), we’re currently tracking above the midpoint of our 2025 revenue guidance range.”
