Netflix co-CEO buys $20M of streaming firm’s beleaguered stock in apparent vote of confidence
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Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings bought $20M of his streaming companyâs stock in recent days in an apparent vote of confidence after share prices tumbled, an SEC filing shows.
A Form 4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that Hastings purchased 51,440 shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) on Thursday and Friday in a series of small transactions at prices ranging from $376.43 to $393.55.
NFLX closed Friday at $384.36, down 0.6% on the session and 45.2% since reaching a $700.99 record intraday high some 2-1/2 months ago.
The streaming giantâs shares had earlier hit a nearly two-year low of $351.46 intraday on Monday after Netflix (NFLX) reported after the bell on Jan. 20 that Q4 subscriber growth missed both company and analyst predictions. NFLX said it gained just 8.28M net subscribers worldwide, whereas analysts had anticipated 8.32M net new users and the company had previously guided to 8.5M.
The miss sparked a multi-session slide for NFLX stock that included a 22% selloff on Jan. 21. Investors apparently viewed the results as a sign of growing competition from rival streaming services such as Disney+ from Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS), Amazon Prime from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Paramount+ from Viacom CBS (NASDAQ:VIAC).
However, Hastings isnât the only business titan whoâs betting that Netflix (NFLX) will eventually recover.
The stock partly rebounded on Thursday and Friday after billionaire Bill Ackman announced that his Pershing Square Holdings hedge fund (OTCPK:PSHZF) used the recent selloff to invest in NFLX for the first time. Ackman said his fund bought more than 3.1M shares to become one of the streaming firmâs 20 largest shareholders.

Still, Seeking Alpha columnists have mixed views as to where Netflix (NFLX) goes from here. Contributor Denis Buivolov recently laid out a âStrong Buyâ thesis for the stock, while columnist Mike Thomas countered with a âStrong Sellâ recommendation.