Netflix stock on Friday received its highest price target from a Wall Street analyst. The analyst said the company will benefit from its position as "the world's dominant pay video entertainment platform."
Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak reiterated his buy rating on Netflix stock and hiked his year-end price target to 765 from 700.
On the stock market today, Netflix climbed 3.1% to close at 636.18.
"Our positive investment view remains unchanged," Wlodarczak said in a client note. "Netflix has won the streaming wars and their continued strong subscriber/ARPU (average revenue per user) and free cash flow generation should drive the shares higher."
Netflix Stock Awaits Earnings Report
Netflix's dominance is evidenced by many of its subscription video peers resorting to licensing their formerly exclusive streaming library content to Netflix, he said.
Wlodarczak predicted "continued solid momentum in the core business" for Netflix for the rest of the year. He sees Netflix adding 19.5 million subscribers this year, vs. the consensus number of 19.9 million. Netflix ended 2023 with 260.3 million subscribers worldwide.
"By year-end 2030 we are now assuming 356 million total paying subscribers vs. 347 million previously," he said.
The next potential catalyst for Netflix stock could be the company's first-quarter earnings report, due on April 18.
Netflix stock is on three IBD stock lists: IBD 50, Big Cap 20 and Stock Spotlight.
Spotify Stock Also Gets Price-Target Hike
In other news, Wlodarczak raised his price target on streaming music leader Spotify Technology to 390 from 330. That's another Street-high price target. He rates Spotify stock as buy.
Spotify stock jumped 4.9% to close at 310.31 on Friday.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, UBS analyst Batya Levi maintained her buy rating on Spotify and raised her price target to 375 from 274.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
