Samantha Lee/Business Insider
- Netflix is a battleground stock. The streaming giant's meteoric rise has long elicited a passionate discussion across the investment community from both sides of the bull-bear coin.
- The company has also reached an inflection point. Netflix forecasts that its much-discussed burn rate will likely peak this year, and then improve "each year thereafter."
- To distill the latest arguments for and against investing in Netflix, Markets Insider asked the Wall Street analysts carrying the stock's highest and lowest price targets the same questions.
- We found what they managed to agree on - and what they believe the other side is missing.
- Watch Netflix trade live.
Netflix pushes investors to extremes.
On one end, bulls say the streaming giant continues to boast a robust content slate and maintains solid subscriber growth as consumers move away from paying for traditional entertainment services.
On the other end, bears say the stock's valuation has gotten out of control, its cash burn rate is a major concern, and it faces rising competition from players in the white-hot streaming space.
Now, the company is approaching an inflection point. The Reed Hastings-led platform told shareholders in January it expects negative free cash flow to effectively peak this year, and then "improve each year thereafter," assuming they don't see any material transactions.
Netflix shares fell after the company's fourth-quarter earnings report as revenue fell short of Wall Street's expectations. Shares are trading about 17% below the June record high of $423.21, though they've staged a meaningful comeback from the depths of the market's sell-off in December.
To be sure, Wall Street analysts are still pretty bullish on the name, with the fourth-quarter results causing a number of analysts to raise their price targets. Of those surveyed by Bloomberg, 31 have a "buy" rating, 10 recommend "hold," and four say "sell."
In separate interviews this week, Markets Insider posed the same questions to analysts on opposite ends of the spectrum.
The biggest Netflix bull on Wall Street, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, is Jeffrey Wlodarczak, the founder of Pivotal Research Group and an entertainment and interactive subscription services analyst at the firm. He has a $500 price target on the stock. Meanwhile, Neil Macker, an analyst at Morningstar, carries a $135 price target, and is Wall Street's biggest bear on the streaming giant.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.