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Netflix ( NFLX ) late Monday beat forecasts for first-quarter earnings and subscriber growth, but disappointed with weak subscriber guidance for the current quarter. Netflix stock fell 10% in after-hours trading following the earnings news release. During the regular session Monday, Netflix fell 2.8% to 108.40. The Internet TV service gained 6.74 million total streaming subscribers worldwide in Q1, including 2.23 million in the U.S. and 4.51 million in international markets. In January, Netflix said it expected to add 1.75 million U.S. streaming subscribers and 4.35 million international subscribers for a total of 6.1 million additional subscribers in the first quarter. It expected to end Q1 with 80.86 million total streaming subscribers, but its actual total was 81.5 million. For the current quarter, Netflix said it expects to add just 500,000 U.S. subscribers and 2 million international subscribers. That would be the smallest customer growth in two years. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company faces subscriber churn in the U.S. as a result of longtime customers seeing a $2 increase to their monthly fee to $9.99 a month. In the first quarter, Netflix earned 6 cents a share on sales of $1.958 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Netflix to earn 3 cents a share on sales of $1.965 billion in the first quarter. For the second quarter, Netflix is targeting earnings per share of 2 cents. It did not give a revenue estimate. Wall Street had been modeling for Netflix to earn 5 cents a share, down 17% year over year, on sales of $2.117 billion, up 29%, in Q2. In the Internet TV sector, Netflix competes with Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Hulu, Time Warner ‘s ( TWX ) HBO and others. On Sunday, Amazon ramped up the competition with Netflix by announcing a stand-alone subscription video service at a lower price. Amazon is now offering its Amazon Prime Video for $8.99 a month, a dollar less than Netflix’s standard streaming plan. Amazon Prime Video was previously available only as part of the online retailer’s $99-a-year Prime service, which offers free two-day shipping on millions of items. Amazon stock closed up 1.5%. Scalper1 News
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