Subscriber Surge Powers Netflix to Top Q4 Revenue

Due to a one-time charge, Netflix’s (NFLX) fourth-quarter revenue was slightly below expectations, despite the company reporting better-than-expected revenue overall. For the quarter, the company’s net income was $938 million, or $2.11 per diluted share of revenue. These amounts were just less than the $983.9 million, or $2.25 per diluted share, that Visible Alpha’s panel of experts had predicted. The foreign exchange assessment of the debt, which amounted to $239 million, caused the earnings per share (EPS) to fall short of the company’s own expectation of $2.15.

Around 5:00 p.m. ET, the shares of Netflix were rising 8.4% at $533.66 in late-night hours trade. Netflix had 260.28 million paying subscribers worldwide at the end of the fourth quarter, a 12.8% increase over the same period the previous year.