Netflix earnings to watch

Netflix reports on Thursday, April 16, and Wall Street is watching one simple question: can a company with more than 325 million paying memberships still grow fast enough to justify another big year for the stock. Netflix said it crossed the 325 million mark in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will post first-quarter 2026 results at 1:01 p.m. Pacific Time. (ir.netflix.net) (s22.q4cdn.com) The setup is unusual because Netflix is no longer just chasing subscriber adds like it did a few years ago. In 2025 it delivered $45.2 billion in revenue, a 29.5% operating margin, and more than $1.5 billion in ad revenue, which means investors now care as much about profit per viewer as raw audience size. (s22.q4cdn.com) Netflix already told investors what a good first quarter would look like. Its fourth-quarter shareholder letter forecast first-quarter 2026 revenue of $12.157 billion, operating income of $3.906 billion, a 32.1% operating margin, and diluted earnings per share of $0.76 after the company’s 10-for-1 stock split. (s22.q4cdn.com) That forecast matters because Netflix stopped giving quarterly paid membership guidance in the way investors used to obsess over. The company’s own explanation for growth in late 2025 leaned on three levers at once: more members, higher prices, and more ad revenue. (s22.q4cdn.com) Advertising is the part of the story that can still change the math fastest. Netflix said in May 2025 that its ad-supported plan reached more than 94 million global monthly active users, and it rolled out its in-house Netflix Ads Suite across all 12 ad-supported countries by June 2025 so it could sell and target ads with its own tools instead of leaning as heavily on outside systems. (about.netflix.com) Live programming is the other new piece investors will listen for on April 16. Netflix has been adding weekly World Wrestling Entertainment Raw streams since January 2025 and carried National Football League Christmas games in 2025, which pushes the service closer to regular appointment viewing instead of only on-demand binge watching. (netflix.com 1) (netflix.com 2) The reason that matters for earnings is simple: live shows can keep people from canceling between hit drama releases. Netflix said its 2026 focus includes improving its core film-and-series business, enhancing the product, and further growing advertising, while also continuing to build out live events. (s22.q4cdn.com) There is also a bigger corporate plotline hanging over the quarter. Netflix told shareholders in January 2026 that it was working to close its acquisition of Warner Bros., so investors will be listening for any update on timing, financing, or regulatory friction. (s22.q4cdn.com) So the April 16 print is not really a pass-fail test on one quarter of subscriber adds. It is a check on whether Netflix can keep turning a giant global audience into faster revenue growth, a roughly doubling ad business in 2026, and a full-year operating margin target of 31.5%. (s22.q4cdn.com)