The streaming giant is boosting the tech-heavy Nasdaq
After its best-ever holiday season, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock is surging today, up 13.1% to trade at $556.49 at last glance and lifting the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) along the way. The streaming giant is brushing off an earnings miss, instead favoring better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and subscriber growth -- now boasting 260.8 million paid subscribers.
NFLX's options pits are unsurprisingly exploding with activity. So far, 142,000 calls and 100,000 puts have been exchanged, or 14 times the options volume typically seen at this point. New positions are being bought to open at all but two of the top 20 most popular contracts, with the most activity taking place at the monthly January 550 and 600 calls, respectively.
Analysts are also weighing in following Netflix's results. Macquarie raised its rating on the equity to "outperform" and hiked its price target to $595 from $410. Conversely, Deutsche Bank downgraded Netflix stock to "hold" from "buy," but raised its price target to $525 from $460. Overall, no less than 16 more brokerages have hiked their price targets.
Netflix stock is now headed for its highest close since January 2022. The equity has managed to add 35% over the last three months, with its 40-day moving average recently acting as a layer of support. Year over year, NFLX is now more nearly 53% higher.