Netflix Stock Hits New 52-Week Low Despite Q4 Earnings Beat

Despite beating Wall Street earnings expectations for its fourth quarter of 2025, Netflix stock hit a new 52-week low of $81.93 per share on Wednesday amid uncertainty surrounding its $83 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets.

On Tuesday, Netflix revised its deal to all-cash, accelerating the timeline for a shareholder vote by April. It also provided its first update on subscribers since the end of 2024, with the streamer topping 325 million, and revealed that ad revenue came in at over $1.5 billion for the year.

But it also provided a mixed outlook and said it would be pausing share repurchases to help fund the Warner Bros. acquisition, weighing down shares and causing some analysts to cut their price targets on the stock.

While acknowledging that Netflix provided more details about the strategy surrounding a WB acquisition, William Blair analyst Ralph Shackart believes that shares will remain “range-bound” until the outcome of the deal is finalized.

“Even though the overall fundamentals of the business remain solid, that will likely take a back seat to the battle to acquire Warner Bros., in our view,” he wrote. “However, we believe the stock is set up to outperform after the outcome of the Warner Bros. potential acquisition. Netflix remains well positioned to remain a secular streaming winner, in our view, and we believe it will retain pricing power over the long term and will continue to grow its members.”

Guggenheim Securities analyst Michael Morris, who cut his price target on Netflix stock to $130 per share, agreed that the “path to conclusion” on the WBD bid will “remain a primary sentiment driver and likely share appreciation limiter over the next three months.” Despite beating Wall Street expectations, Morris said that engagement trends and 2026 profit guidance “temper enthusiasm.”

Seaport Research analyst David Joyce said that growth and margin concerns around Netflix are “overblown” and that its shares have “overreacted to the downside.” But he noted that the “sort-of mixed bag of guidance, although skewing positively, served as an excuse to sell now and come back later.”

“We would be holders and adding to long-term positions at this level — but it may require patience as some market participants may seek nearer-term catalysts elsewhere, without a pending deal overhang,” Joyce said.

MoffettNathanson analysts Robert Fishman and Michael Nathanson, who also cut their price target to $115 per share, believe that Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. would allow it to expand its “leading industry position.” However, the pair added there are “some defensive elements at play.”

“Netflix may be looking to protect its third-party licensed content by pursuing Warner Bros. and HBO content if there is risk that PSKY would hold it back to be exclusive on its own streaming platform,” they wrote. “However, we remain skeptical that all licensed content will be fully pulled back given the importance to company cash flows.”

Despite Netflix’s revised all-cash bid, it remains to be seen how Paramount Skydance will respond, which MoffettNathanson says depends on how aggressive it wants to (or can) be.

“We would not be surprised to see Netflix up its bid $1 or $2 per share if necessary but at the same time expect the company to approach this negotiation from a position of strength and discipline,” the analysts wrote. “As long as
Netflix views this deal internally as more of a very large content licensing negotiation, we have seen evidence of Netflix walking away from other content deals after market demand pushed the price beyond its financial thresholds.”

Netflix stock is trading at $84.62 per share as of Wednesday morning, down 3%. Shares are down 7% year to date, 31% in the past six months, 9.2% in the past month and 7.2% in the past five days.

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