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July 17 (Reuters) - Netflix shares sank more than 10% premarket on Friday after the streaming giant forecast another quarter of slower revenue gains and scaled back viewership data, fueling fears that its industry-beating growth may have peaked.
In its latest disclosure pullback, the company cut the frequency of its viewing-hours report to once a year from twice starting 2027, following last year's scrapping of subscriber counts, leaving investors in the dark as the business faces greater competition from traditional media as well as YouTube.
"Whenever you take away a data point from investors when results aren't as good as they have been you will get punished by the market," said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot.
Friday's drop could erase more than $35 billion from the company's market value of about $313 billion, if the premarket losses hold. The stock has lost 44% since hitting an all-time high in June 2025, including an over 20% fall just this year.
Netflix's failed pursuit of Warner Bros earlier this year has also raised doubts about its next phase of growth amid slow adoption of an ad-supported streaming tier that the company has long touted as a big growth driver.
After a strong content slate in 2025 that included the final season of its hit sci-fi series "Stranger Things" and South Korean drama "Squid Games", analysts said the company also has a weaker content line-up this year that could weigh on growth.
Keeping subscribers hooked is crucial for Netflix as it has long traded at a premium to other media companies that command a smaller streaming subscriber base and are grappling with the ongoing declines in cable TV.
Netflix trades at nearly 20 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, compared with 13.5 times for Walt Disney and 6.6 times for Comcast, underscoring the premium investors place on the streaming giant.
Still, at least 18 analysts cut their price targets after Netflix forecast quarterly revenue and earnings below Wall Street expectations. The median target, however, remains about 40% above Thursday's closing price.
"The story lacks excitement," said Jeffrey Wlodarczak, analyst at Pivotal Research Group.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese and Joel Jose in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Devika Syamnath)
