By Sam Boughedda
CFRA analysts double-upgraded shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) to Buy from Sell in a note to clients on Thursday, raising the firm's price target on the stock to $310 from $225.
The upgrade has helped lift Netflix shares Thursday, with the stock having gained over 4% at the time of writing, adding to its more recent rise. However, it is down more than 50% this year.
"We think it will be difficult for competitors to catch NFLX, one of the few profitable streaming providers with global scale," wrote the analysts.
They believe new original content will support subscriber trends, with the firm seeing upcoming catalysts from the company's ad-support subscriber tier and "new paid sharing efforts to better control sharing of subscription accounts."
Ahead of the Christmas break, Oppenheimer analysts reiterated the firm's Outperform stance on Netflix. The analysts, in response to a recent article from Digiday, indicating the streaming giant was having execution struggles with its new advertising tier, stated he believes "NFLX stock will be driven by subs, not revenue."