Netflix stock flirts with $1,000: ‘Squid Game,’ live sports, and more price hikes help shares hit new benchmark

Shares of Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) are surging in premarket trading after the company announced a blowout end to its fiscal 2024. The stock is currently sitting at an all-time high as of the time of this writing after revealing the company has surpassed a major milestone—crossing the 300 million subscriber mark for the first time.

Here’s what you need to know about Netflix’s Q4 and its impact on the company’s stock price.

Netflix’s Q4 2024 sees memberships surge

Netflix had nothing short of a blowout for its Q4 2024. Here are its most significant metrics for the period:

• Revenue: $10.25 billion
• Diluted earnings per share: $4.27
• Global Streaming Paid Memberships: 301.63

Netflix says that its Q4 revenue increased 16% from a year earlier, which was helped by the addition of another 19 million subscribers for the quarter. All this allowed Netflix to achieve nearly 302 million paid memberships—the first time Netflix has ever surpassed 300 million members globally.

To put some of those numbers into further perspective, Netflix beat most analyst expectations for the quarter. As CNBC reports, analysts had been expecting revenue of $10.11 billion, EPS of $4.20, and paid memberships totaling 290.9 million.

Netflix says its blowout quarter was due to several factors, including its content slate as well as typical Q4 seasonality. The company called out some of its best performers, including the second season of Squid Game, which it says is on track to become one of its most-watch original series, and the holiday airport thriller Carry-On.

Netflix also said the popularity of its live-streamed sports events, including the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight and its two NFL games streamed on Christmas Day, outperformed expectations.

The company also announced something else that was music to investors’ ears, yet may alienate some of the subscribers Netflix gained in its most recent quarter: price hikes.

Price hikes across all Netflix subscription tiers

In addition addition to strong profits and revenue, Netflix also announced that it would be raising its subscription pricing in four countries, including the United States, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.

In the United States, the prices of Netflix’s various subscriptions will rise as follows:

• Standard with ads plan: $6.99 to $7.99.
• Standard (1080p) plan: $15.49 to $17.99
• Premium (4K) plan: $22.99 to $24.99.

CNBC notes that Netflix is also raising the cost of adding an extra member to a plan. Extra members allow people to add someone outside of their household to their Netflix account. The cost of adding an extra member will rise by $1 per month, going from $7.99 to $8.99.

Netflix did not announce when the price rises would go into effect, but as to the rises themselves, the company noted that “As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix.”

Netflix last raised the prices of some of its plans in the U.S. in 2023.

NFLX stock price hits all-time high

While the upcoming price hikes may not make Netflix consumers happy, investors don’t seem to feel it could hurt the company’s bottom line. Netflix shares are currently up over 15% in premarket trading after the company announced its Q4 results after the closing bell last night.

Netflix premarket shares topped $1,000 at one point early Wednesday morning, an all-time high for the company.

As for its future, Netflix says its focus for 2025 is to grow its ad business, focus on content that consumers love, and further develop its slate of live programming. For Q1 2025, the company is forecasting $10.4 billion in revenue, which equates to a year-over-year growth of 11.2%.