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NFLX Beats Q4 EPS On Tax Gain, Misses Revenues, Guides Lower, Cash Burn Soars, Reports $9.5Bn In Off-Balance Sheet Obligations

Tyler Durden's picture




 

All algos that were short NFLX into earnings were just brutalized and stampeded into an epic short-covering squeeze when the company announced Q4 EPS of $1.35, nearly double the $0.72 expected. However, as usual, there is more here than meets the eye, epsecially when considering that NFLX Q4 revenue actually missed expectations of $1.49Bn, printing $1.48Bn. So how did NFLX smash EPS? Because as anyone who actually read the release before trading the stock would find, NFLX "Q4'14 Net Income/EPS includes a $39m / $0.63 benefit from a tax accrual release related to resolution of tax audit." Subtract that from the reported EPS and one gets $0.72. Right on top of expectations.

And then there is Q1 guidance, which NFLX said would be $0.60, not only lower than a year ago, but also substantially below expectations of $0.78.

So net-net: a quarter that was in line on the bottom line, a miss on the top line, and a business which may well be slowing down.

Finally, here what investors will soon be paying very close attention to: Free Cash Flow. At ($78) million, this was the worst quarter for the company in years.

And as a bonus: NFLX reported what its off-balance sheet streaming content obligations are. At $9.5 billion (yes, with a B), these are $600 million higher in just one quarter, up $2.2 billion from a year ago, and just under half of its entire market cap!

 

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Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:19 | 5685456 kliguy38
kliguy38's picture

and the shorts get squeezed........hehehhehe watta joke

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:22 | 5685461 Bloppy
Bloppy's picture

CNBS hysterically happy for this "huge beat"

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:27 | 5685465 knukles
knukles's picture

Was this pre or post menopausal GAAP contested unearned make believes and assorted crap?
Am I crazy or is the shit really up 15.5% now including after hours trading?
If ya' got a 100 shares this getcha a free prostate massage?  Get one bring Steve Liesman for free?

BLAAAAAAARRRARARARAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:29 | 5685485 SickDollar
SickDollar's picture

what a fucken joke this stock market

 

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:33 | 5685502 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Reggie Middleton says if you have Netflix, you can watch, like, 10,000 movies every month.

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:37 | 5685519 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

Speaking of Reggie,

We cornholed some short NFLX folks...

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 20:11 | 5686037 SeattleBruce
SeattleBruce's picture

"$9.5Bn In Off-Balance Sheet Obligations"

What's a few Billion between investing buddies?  What's 100 or 200 Trillion between gubmint friends?  What's 600 or 800 Trillion in re-hypothecated derivatives between TBTJ bankstas?  I mean it's only fiat paper, right?

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:35 | 5685506 jcaz
jcaz's picture

These earnings were.....  Blockbuster......

Oops....

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:30 | 5685490 Frank N. Beans
Frank N. Beans's picture

why does everyone say CNBS?  Was there a memo?

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 20:48 | 5686177 rubiconsolutions
rubiconsolutions's picture

"I'm Jim Cramer, and I have a boner."

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 21:47 | 5686423 TheWord
TheWord's picture

Relax!  Lehman Brothers is fine!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:26 | 5685476 orangegeek
orangegeek's picture

FUCK YOU YELLEN

 

ICE - DO WHAT YOUR RELEASE SAYS AND SHUT OFF THOSE FUCKING HFTs

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:30 | 5685481 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 lol, My Mom just said what joke NFLX and all those other USB plug<>ins are.

 She said the shit was repetitive/

 

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:28 | 5685483 EuropeanBankster
EuropeanBankster's picture

+12 % after hours..What a fucking joke!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:32 | 5685496 wmbz
wmbz's picture

Yea! In todays world this is what you want, super bidness! Double plus, plus good!

This a screaming buy!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 19:11 | 5685827 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Happy happy joy joy.

 

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 20:42 | 5686152 Keyser
Keyser's picture

It's got electrolyes!!!!

 

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:39 | 5685500 Bennie Noakes
Bennie Noakes's picture

Companies almost always remove "one-time" losses from non-GAAP earnings. But one-time gains are almost never removed.

OT: No gunpowder traces were found on the Argentinian prosecutors hands:

http://buenosairesherald.com/article/179980/no-gunpowder-traces-found-on...

 

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:35 | 5685505 Rainman
Rainman's picture

IBM revenue down 11 straight quarters ..... 'beats' anyway !

             http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-20/ibm-earnings-beat-analysts-estimates-forecast-meets-low-end.html

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:35 | 5685507 techstrategy
techstrategy's picture

All investors need do is liquidate (talking advantage of artificially cheap puts) to buy gold.   TBTJ are pinned...  it is time to exterminate the parasites...

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:41 | 5685526 Bell's 2 hearted
Bell&#039;s 2 hearted's picture

the sad thing for these shorts ... in (less rigged to boot) casinos you get free drinks

 

yeah, yeah ... water downed and plan to leave a tip if you expect to see them again ... but still ...

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:45 | 5685536 assistedliving
assistedliving's picture

time for Chanos to come on CNBS and tell us all how much moar $$$ he made. 

winning!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:46 | 5685540 thatthingcanfly
thatthingcanfly's picture

Well, in an economy where 23% of the adult population is unemployed, of course online movies (and video games) and the companies that make/provide them will be beating expectations. I'll bet beer companies are doing well too, no? What the hell else are all those unemployed folks gonna do?

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:54 | 5685571 lbrecken
lbrecken's picture

Said this on CNBC this thing is an acct gimick and stil is as the games continue and the lib hoards love it still,,,,,,

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 18:23 | 5685678 Uncle Sugar
Uncle Sugar's picture

CNBC?  You mean CNBS.

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 17:59 | 5685593 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

  BTW, I caught the "net income " vs "EPS"  line.

 BBq and take a nap. The ECB is sure to be a "let down"

  The BoJ policy meeting will be good.

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 18:21 | 5685669 Lax Accounting
Lax Accounting's picture

Off balance sheet? I guess we learned nothing with Enron?

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 20:37 | 5686140 nakki
nakki's picture

With a screen name like that I would think you would know they learned a lot from Enron and Arthur Andersen.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 01:43 | 5687145 starman
starman's picture

Who knew algos think like mupppets and surfs!

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 06:54 | 5687339 Handful of Dust
Handful of Dust's picture

Crappy streaming movies, poor management and slow streaming are some of their problems.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 09:11 | 5687499 jubber
jubber's picture

up $63 pre market

 

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