Netflix stocks drop 39% after massive loss of subscribers

The streaming service shocked Wall Street by losing 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. Netflix Inc dropped 39% on Wednesday, extending a selloff that has set it on track to erase $60 billion in market value, and has reported a significant decrease in its subscriber base. Netflix traded as little as $212.51 in New York, extending its decline to 64% this year, making it the lowest-performing stock in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq100 indexes. Netflix has a weighting of 0.7% for the Nasdaq 100 and 0.3% for the S&P 500. The stocks are poised for the largest decline since October 2004 and are now worth less than $100 billion in market value. The streaming service shocked Wall Street by losing 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, the first time it has had subscribers since 2011. It also expects to decrease by 2 million clients in the second quarter. “A big problem with Netflix is that it’s too easy to quit the service,” said Russ Mould, director of investment for AJ Bell. Consumers who are feeling the pinch of inflation will be watching their spending closely, and streaming services are a quick way to save money, he said. The declining customer base has led Netflix to break some of its longstanding rules: it will introduce a cheaper, advertising-funded option for subscribers over the next few years and will start cracking down on people who share their passwords even before that. Netflix stocks have been hurting this year, as pandemic increases in user listings faded and investors shifted away from high-value technologies and growth stocks due to higher bond yields. Fellow stay-at-home stocks, including Etsy Inc., Zoom Video Communications Inc., and DocuSign Inc. have also been hit by heavy losses, down from 38% to 51% in 2022, while these businesses struggle to capitalize on the gains they made during the lockdowns.