By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported Tuesday mixed first-quarter results as revenue missed Wall Street estimates after the streaming giant reported an unexpected decline in subscribers for the first time in more than a decade.
Netflix announced earnings per share of $3.53 on revenue of $7.87 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $2.95 on revenue of $7.9 billion.
Netflix shares lost more than 20% in after-hours trading following the report.
For the first quarter of 2022, the company lost 200,000 subscribers, confounding its own expectations for 2.5 million net subscriber adds. Analysts had expected about 2.8 million net adds.
The loss in subscribers comes as the streaming giant implemented price hikes in developments markets including the U.S. and Canada, while the loss of Russian subscribers as - the company suspended its services in the country - also weighed.
"The suspension of our service in Russia and winding-down of all Russian paid memberships resulted in a -0.7m impact on paid net adds; excluding this impact, paid net additions totaled +0.5m," Netflix said. "The main challenge for membership growth is continued soft acquisition across all regions."
Looking ahead, there isn't any sign of the rebound in subscriber growth as Netflix forecast second quarter paid net additions to decline 2.0 million compared with 1.5 million net adds in the year ago quarter.