Netflix’s Q3 2018 Results: Subscribers Up, Stock Pops

After its subscriber growth disappointed Wall Street in the second quarter, Netflix (NFLX) stock took a beating as investors thought its subscriber growth might continue to slow down. However, that might just be an aberration.

Netflix reported its third quarter of 2018 financial results after the market closed on October 16. It added a whopping 6.96 million subscribers, beating Wall Street’s estimate of 5.1 million and its own estimate of 5 million. It now has 137 million subscribers, with ~78 million of them based outside the United States.

Netflix added 1.09 million subscribers domestically and 5.87 million outside the United States. International subscribers continue to be its main source of subscriber growth, as the graph above shows. During the fourth quarter, Netflix expects to add 9.4 million subscribers.

Netflix continues to pump in money to create more original content, not only in English but also in foreign languages. According to Cowen, Netflix added a record 676 hours of programming in the third quarter.

Netflix has been adding more subscribers each year. In the first three quarters of the year, it added ~20 million subscribers. Last year, it added only ~16 million in that period.

Netflix stock was up ~4% before the bell on October 16 and surged 11.7% in after-hours trading.