• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998

3

Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds

1

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs

2

Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998

3

Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
FinanceWorld's Most Admired Companies

Netflix Named One of the World’s Most Admired Companies

By
Lauren Silva Laughlin
Lauren Silva Laughlin
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Lauren Silva Laughlin
Lauren Silva Laughlin
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 28, 2016, 6:30 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Netflix (NFLX) reappeared on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Top 50 All-Stars list this month after a four-year absence. Re­sponders to our survey, who are business insiders and C-suite executives, aren’t the only ones who have fallen in love, then out, then back in love. The company is in favor again because of a focus on innovation and stellar stock performance. An investor who purchased 100 shares 10 years ago would have seen his or her stake balloon from $2,200 to $73,000, with dividends reinvested.

Even over the past year the stock has given investors plenty to admire. Shares are up 63% from one year ago, though since December the stock price has fallen by a quarter, then jumped 19% from its February lows. In a day, shares can be up 5%, then down as much the next.

WMA.04.01.16.chart

Why the volatility? “It is one of the more confusing equities on the planet to figure out,” says FBR Research analyst Barton Crockett. Investors struggle for a couple of reasons. First, Netflix is pioneering an entirely new business. “We have never seen anything like this: a global direct-to-consumer video service with completely original content that is separate from the traditional TV ecosystem,” Crockett says.

Netflix (No. 19, World’s Most Admired Companies) also has no direct publicly traded competitor for comparison. Amazon (AMZN) and Hulu have similar services, but both are owned by larger parents with other busi­nesses that muddy the valuation.

Within Netflix, its two main businesses are at dramatically different points in their development, making it even more difficult to pin down its stock’s worth. With more than 45 million subscribers, its U.S. business is mature and, more important, has become very profitable, allowing Netflix to invest $5 bil­lion to create 31 new series this year.

But its international unit, with about 30 million viewers, is still “deep in ­investment mode,” says Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital. “Before they can generate $1, they have to spend money to get content to have a service that people would sign up for. By the nature of the beast, you have to invest upfront.”

It’s this business that has investors perplexed. Crockett says the U.S. streaming service is worth about $25 a share, or a little over a quarter of the company’s current stock price. That implies the remaining value, or roughly $75 a share, comes from the international business, which represents 30% of revenue, and is projected to grow 65% by the end of 2016.

It’s a leap of faith. According to a survey Mahaney conducted, in Japan, for example, only 1% of respondents said they had used the company’s ser­vices. That might sound like an opportunity, but a whopping 57% said they were “not at all likely” to pay for streaming content, almost three times as many as in the U.S.

Nevertheless, Mahaney is a firm believer, putting a $200 valuation on the stock, roughly twice its current price, in three to eight years. He points to Netflix penetration in markets like Germany and France that are “not necessarily known for being too U.S. culture-centric,” but where it has reached about 10% of viewers, a key hurdle to showing it has a “material presence in the market.”

Crockett also believes American entertainment is exportable. “People around the world may love or hate America, but by and large they tend to love American entertainment,” he says.

The trouble, he says, is that many of the grand expectations are already reflected in the stock price. Shares trade at nearly 83 times 2017’s projected earnings, and analysts are expecting profit to quadruple by next year. As he sees it, Netflix’s price won’t rise much unless it has another trick up its sleeve.

Still, it is hard to find an analyst who doesn’t see CEO Reed Hastings as a visionary. He “invented two companies,” Mahaney says. “DVD by mail and the business that killed DVD by mail.”

According to Crockett, he “will go down in ­history as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. He is incredibly insightful, incredibly innovative, and has a remarkable ability to adapt.”

See the full list of Fortune’s Top 50 All-Stars and the World’s Most Admired Companies at fortune.com/wmac.

A version of this article appears in the April 1, 2016 issue of Fortune with the headline “What’s Next for Netflix?”.

About the Author
By Lauren Silva Laughlin
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

Chad Hurley and Steven Chen wearing suits
SuccessWealth
YouTube’s founders split over $650 million when they sold to Google in 2006—had they held out, they could have taken a slice of $550 billion
By Preston ForeJuly 3, 2026
15 hours ago
Photo: Paris, france
Environmentclimate change
Brutal heatwave in France is killing 2,000 people per week, undertakers are overwhelmed, and health agency says there’s worse to come
By John Leicester and The Associated PressJuly 3, 2026
15 hours ago
Photo: World Cup fans drinking.
EconomyEconomics
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s ‘misleading’ job numbers
By Jim EdwardsJuly 3, 2026
18 hours ago
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters after signing an executive order dealing with automobile repairs with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Oval Office at the White House on June 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
EconomyFed
Trump is already causing a headache for his new Fed chairman, saying the central bank’s board is ‘hostile’ and ‘doing the wrong thing’
By Eleanor PringleJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago
A $75 billion valuation, 75 million global customers and on its way to America—Revolut is London’s disruptor extraordinaire
EuropeLetter from London
A $75 billion valuation, 75 million global customers and on its way to America—Revolut is London’s disruptor extraordinaire
By Kamal AhmedJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago
Man in a black hat and jacket
InvestingSpace Exploration
Elon Musk can’t sell a single SpaceX share for a year—and then all the locks crack open at once
By Amanda GerutJuly 3, 2026
19 hours ago

Most Popular

Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
Law
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
1 day ago
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
AI
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 3, 2026
22 hours ago
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
Economy
Economists have found an answer to slowing cognitive decline: Avoid retiring early, study finds
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s 'misleading' job numbers
Economy
On Wall Street, analysts increasingly don’t believe the U.S. government’s 'misleading' job numbers
By Jim EdwardsJuly 3, 2026
18 hours ago
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
Success
$25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time—he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 3, 2026
23 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.