A Wall Street analyst on Monday trimmed his price target on Netflix stock after lowering his forecast for subscribers at the internet television network for this year and next. Also Monday, Netflix announced that its chief financial officer is stepping down.
XPAKISTANkAROBAR
 
Imperial Capital analyst David Miller kept his outperform rating on Netflix (NFLX), but cut his 12-month price target to 494 from 503. Netflix stock is down about 15% since the company reported disappointing second-quarter subscriber numbers on July 16. Its shares hit a record high of 423.21 on June 21.
Netflix stock fell 1.3% to 341.31 on the stock market today. It is trading well below its 50-day moving average, a negative technical trading indicator.
Miller trimmed his Netflix global subscriber estimate to 141.2 million from 141.4 million for 2018. He decreased his global subscriber estimate for 2019 to 164.4 million from 166.3 million.
He made the moves "in the interest of being conservative," he said in a report.

Netflix Chief Financial Officer To Step Down

Netflix announced Monday that Chief Financial Officer David Wells is leaving the company after 14 years. He plans to stay at the company until a successor is found, according to a news release. Wells has been chief financial officer since 2010.
Wells said he wanted a change and intends to focus on philanthropy and undisclosed "big challenges."
"With Netflix's strong financial position and exciting growth plans, this is the right time for us to help identify the next financial leader for the company," Wells said in a statement.
Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White said he isn't concerned about Wells' departure.
"Given the tremendous success of Netflix over the years and a future that we view as very bright, we believe the company will be able to attract a high-quality CFO," he said in a report. He reiterated his buy rating on Netflix stock with a price target of 430.
White sees the timing of the announcement as coincidental to Netflix's disappointing Q2 report and guidance.

Minimal Impact From Loss Of Disney Content

Meanwhile, Miller thinks Netflix will see minimal impact from Walt Disney (DIS) pulling its content from the service on Jan. 1.
"Based on our research, we think the Disney content on Netflix right now represents about 6.3% of total viewer hours on the platform," he said. "The question then becomes, how many Netflix subscribers abandon the service because of the absence of Disney content? We suspect very few, if any at all."
Plus, Netflix will be able to reallocate the roughly $300 million it pays Disney into making its own content to attract and retain subscribers, Miller said.
Disney is planning to launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming video service late next year.
Four weeks ago, Netflix reported adding 5.2 million subscribers in the second quarter. It missed its own forecast for 6.2 million made in mid-April. It also disappointed with its guidance for new subscribers in the current quarter.
Netflix subscribers at the end of the June quarter totaled 130.1 million worldwide