Netflix Q4 Earnings: Success Despite Competition

Video rental company Netflix (NFLX) released 4th quarter earnings Wednesday. Amidst a turbulent economy and increasing competition from both traditional and non traditional rivals, Netflix largely met or exceeded expectations.

The company earned $15.8m (24 cents a share) for the quarter ended December 31st. Excluding stock based compensation, earnings were $17.8m (27cents/share) on revenue of $301.7m. Revenue was up 9% over the same period last year.

Wall Streets consensus expectation was 14 cents a share on revenue of $301.7m.

In subscriber metrics, total subscribers numbered 7,479,000 at the close of the quarter, a net gain of 451k. Subscriber acquisition costs decreased from $44.31 a year ago to $34.60 per head.

Churn, or the rate of subscriber cancellations, was improved slightly form the 3rd quarter (4.1% vs 4.2% in Q3) but off from 3.9% reported in the same period last year.

In forward guidance, the company is projecting first quarter earnings of 13-21cents a share on revenue of $323m to $328m. That’s ahead of the $320.1m from analysts polled by Thompson. The company expects subscriber tallies to be between 7.85m and 8.05m.