NEW YORK, June 2, 2026, 16:03 EDT
Netflix shares dropped almost 3% in late Nasdaq trading Tuesday, trailing a flat U.S. market as investors stayed cautious about the streaming company’s growth targets with its annual shareholder meeting coming up this week. The stock last traded at $83.36, down $2.50, after hitting a session low of $83.35.
Netflix is set for its annual meeting on June 4, with shares still facing pressure and investors arguing over its 2026 outlook. The online meeting starts at 3:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday.
Stocks offered little support to Netflix. Reuters said Wall Street was quiet, with the Dow adding 0.29%, the S&P 500 up 0.06% and the Nasdaq off 0.05%. AI spending hopes ran into concerns over the Middle East and interest rates.
Netflix’s recent selloff is pushing the question of whether the company can keep boosting revenue without relying too much on U.S. price hikes. Back in April, Netflix kept its 2026 revenue outlook in place at $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion, and kept its operating margin goal at 31.5%. Operating margin is operating profit divided by revenue.
Management said advertising revenue is still headed for $3 billion in 2026, about twice what it was the year before. Second-quarter revenue growth is forecast at 13%. The company cautioned that content amortization, which spreads film and show spending over time, will be higher in the first half.
Netflix is sticking to its earlier forecast, co-CEO Greg Peters said on the company’s April earnings call. The outlook calls for 12% to 14% revenue growth and aims to roughly double the advertising business to $3 billion. Peters said Netflix finished 2025 with over 325 million paid members, but its share of global TV viewing was only about 5%.
The competition is still stiff. Disney fell 1.6% on Tuesday as it aims for streaming profits, Warner Bros. Discovery barely moved, and Meta, big in digital ads, was unchanged. Netflix dropped more, pointing to stock-specific pressure over a sector move.
Investors continue to assess the fallout from the Warner Bros. Discovery saga and Reed Hastings’ move to leave the Netflix board. Reuters said in April that Hastings will not seek re-election at the annual meeting. Netflix got a $2.8 billion termination fee when the Warner Bros. deal collapsed.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts the Warner Bros. deal was “nice to have, not a need to have.” Sarandos said the company tested its investment discipline by dropping out when the price got too high for shareholders. M&A will stay in the toolkit, but Sarandos said Netflix will approach deals “very disciplined.” Q4 Productions
Analysts aren’t on the same page over how much to credit that discipline. Matthew Dolgin at Morningstar said after earnings, “the market likely hoped for increased full-year guidance.” He held his $80 fair value on the stock, and argued Netflix is getting closer to an appealing entry but has a lot of uncertainty left. Morningstar
Some analysts took a more positive view following the April slide. David Joyce at Seaport Research Partners upped his price target to $119 from $115, noting his earlier target factored in uncertainty over the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Joyce wrote the company’s clearer strategy might improve sentiment.
But the downside isn’t hard to see. Subscribers might balk at back-to-back price hikes, or the ad tier could push more users to lower-cost plans without matching gains in ad dollars. That could mean revenue slows faster than Netflix aims for. “Ad business is growing but not at the rate marketers expected,” EMarketer analyst Ross Benes told Reuters in April. He also said advertising will matter more as Netflix moves past the Hastings era. Reuters
The stock isn’t acting like it has a new story yet and still looks stuck against its own tough comparisons. Thursday’s meeting probably won’t move the numbers. Investors will tune in anyway to see if there’s anything that makes the 2026 guidance seem more solid, or less secure.
