Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) recently announced that two of its top executives, Neil Hunt, the Chief Product Officer, and Tawni Cranz, the chief talent officer, will step down from their positions.
Hunt has been with Netflix for 18 long years since he joined the company back in 1999. He has been leading the product team “which designs, builds, and delivers the Netflix experience.”
Hunt will leave the company in July and will be succeeded by Greg Peters. Netflix stated that Peters held multiple roles in product engineering and business development for more than nine years at Netflix. Currently, he spearheads the company’s international development efforts from the Tokyo office.
As per Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO, “Greg and Neil have collaborated through the years to make the Netflix experience all over the world absolutely incredible”.
Cranz has also contributed immensely to the company. She joined Netflix in 2007 and since then has played a vital role in developing the business culture and forming an incredible talent team, said Hastings.
Meanwhile, Investopedia, which quoted research firm Comscore, stated that Netflix remains the leader in the over-the-top (OTT) services space despite stiff competition from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube and Amazon.com, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Prime Video service.
Furthermore, reportedly, Netflix has the highest penetration rate of 75% when it comes to OTT services, followed by YouTube 53%. Amazon and Hulu have a penetration rate of 33% and 17%, respectively. Notably, subscribers of Netflix clocked 28 hours of viewing time per month, closely trailing Sling TV with an average viewing time of 47 hours per month.
We note that Netflix has outperformed the Zacks Broadcasting-Radio/TV industry in the last one year. While the stock returned 40.1%, the industry gained 16.3%.
The outperformance can be attributed to the company’s continuing subscriber growth and an expanding original content product portfolio.
We note that the company’s continuing focus on international expansion is driving its top-line growth, providing competitive leverage against the likes of Amazon Prime. In its last reported quarter, Netflix added 5.12 million international subscribers and anticipates another 3.70 million for the first quarter of 2017.
A few days ago Netflix replaced its star rating system with a thumbs down and thumbs up for viewers to indicate their response to a film or television show on Netflix. (Read More: Netflix Introduces Thumbs Up/Down, Discontinues Star Ratings).
Currently Netflix carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stock to Consider
A better-ranked stock in the broader technology space is Salen Media Group, Inc (NASDAQ:SALM) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.
Notably, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Salem Media Group’s current year has improved to 48 cents from 40 cents in the last 60 days.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report
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