Netflix shares fell sharply on Thursday, dropping as much as 8 percent, after the company’s latest quarterly results did not satisfy investors. The sell-off showed that concerns about future growth and user engagement are still weighing heavily on sentiment around the streaming company.
For the April-to-June period, Netflix reported net profit of $3.4 billion. That was more than 9 percent higher than in the same quarter a year earlier, indicating that the company remained strongly profitable even as market expectations stayed high.
Despite that increase in profit, investors appeared focused on broader worries about slowing engagement at the Los Gatos, California-based group. The reaction suggests that strong earnings alone were not enough to calm fears about how much room Netflix still has to keep expanding at the pace the market wants.
The move in Netflix shares highlights the pressure facing major streaming businesses to deliver both profits and convincing signs of continued momentum. In this case, the company’s earnings improvement was overshadowed by renewed caution about growth.
