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Rani Molla

Analysts think Netflix is a good bet in a bad economy, raise price targets

Netflix’s earnings beat last week seems to have cemented analysts’ view that the company is a good hedge against a bad economy.

JPMorgan analysts raised their Netflix price target to $1,150, citing a “stable operating environment w/no indications of macro impact.” Wells Fargo raised its price target to $1,222, saying, “We think NFLX has substantially higher relative appeal in this uncertain macro.”

Bank of America reiterated its $1,175 price target and raised its revenue estimates for 2025 and 2026, writing, “The company remains very well positioned in the Media and Entertainment landscape with sustainable growth drivers that should prove to be predictable and defensive amid a wide range of macroeconomic scenarios.” Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, Morgan Stanley, and Piper Sandler also raised price targets, CNBC reports.

Netflix, for what it’s worth, seems to agree. On the company’s earnings call last week, Co-CEO Gregory Peters said:

“We’re paying close attention clearly to the consumer sentiment and where the broader economy is moving. But based on what we are seeing by actually operating the business right now, there’s nothing really significant to note.

So what are we looking at? Primary metrics and indicators would be our retention, that’s stable and strong. We haven’t seen any significant changes in plan mix or planned take rate to part of that question. Our most recent price changes have been in line with expectations. Engagement remains strong and healthy. So things generally look stable from that lens. Stepping back, we also take some comfort in the fact that entertainment historically has been pretty resilient in tougher economic times.

Netflix specifically also has been generally quite resilient, and we haven’t seen any major impacts during those tougher times, albeit, of course, over a much shorter history.”

The stock is up 1.8% in premarket trading to $991.35, meaning it has quite a bit of room to go higher if you believe those analyst targets.

Bank of America reiterated its $1,175 price target and raised its revenue estimates for 2025 and 2026, writing, “The company remains very well positioned in the Media and Entertainment landscape with sustainable growth drivers that should prove to be predictable and defensive amid a wide range of macroeconomic scenarios.” Goldman Sachs, Evercore ISI, Morgan Stanley, and Piper Sandler also raised price targets, CNBC reports.

Netflix, for what it’s worth, seems to agree. On the company’s earnings call last week, Co-CEO Gregory Peters said:

“We’re paying close attention clearly to the consumer sentiment and where the broader economy is moving. But based on what we are seeing by actually operating the business right now, there’s nothing really significant to note.

So what are we looking at? Primary metrics and indicators would be our retention, that’s stable and strong. We haven’t seen any significant changes in plan mix or planned take rate to part of that question. Our most recent price changes have been in line with expectations. Engagement remains strong and healthy. So things generally look stable from that lens. Stepping back, we also take some comfort in the fact that entertainment historically has been pretty resilient in tougher economic times.

Netflix specifically also has been generally quite resilient, and we haven’t seen any major impacts during those tougher times, albeit, of course, over a much shorter history.”

The stock is up 1.8% in premarket trading to $991.35, meaning it has quite a bit of room to go higher if you believe those analyst targets.

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Amazon closes at all-time high

Fresh off strong earnings Thursday, Amazon saw its stock price end the week at a record closing high of $244.22.

The stock is up 10% so far this year.

The e-commerce and cloud giant beat analysts’ revenue and earnings, and its massive gain was responsible for more than all of the positive return delivered by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF on Friday.

tech
Rani Molla

Google uses an AI-generated ad to sell AI search

Google is using AI video to tell consumers about its AI search tools, with a Veo 3-generated advertisement that will begin airing on TV today. In it, a cartoonish turkey uses Google’s AI Mode to plan a vacation from its farm before it’s eaten for Thanksgiving.

Like other AI ad campaigns that have opted to depict yetis or famous artworks rather than humans, Google chose a turkey as its protagonist to avoid the uncanny valley pitfall that happens when AI is used to generate human likenesses.

Google’s in-house marketing group, Google Creative Lab, developed the idea for the ad — not Google’s AI — but chose not to prominently label the ad as AI, telling The Wall Street Journal that consumers don’t actually care how the ad was made.

Google’s in-house marketing group, Google Creative Lab, developed the idea for the ad — not Google’s AI — but chose not to prominently label the ad as AI, telling The Wall Street Journal that consumers don’t actually care how the ad was made.

tech
Rani Molla

Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft combined spent nearly $100 billion on capex last quarter

The numbers are in and tech giants Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft spent a whopping $97 billion last quarter on purchases of property and equipment. That’s nearly double what it was a year earlier as AI infrastructure costs continue to balloon and show no sign of stopping. Amazon, which reported earnings and capital expenditure spending that beat analysts’ expectations yesterday, continued to lead the pack, spending more than $35 billion on capex in the quarter that ended in September.

Note that the data we’re using here is from FactSet, which strips out finance leases when calculating capital expenditures. If those expenses were included the total would be well over $100 billion last quarter.

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