Netflix (NFLX) stock tumbled overnight as investors reacted negatively to the company’s latest earnings outlook, with concerns over slowing quarterly momentum overshadowing stronger long-term growth expectations.

Netflix expects fiscal third-quarter earnings of $0.82 per share and revenue of $12.86 billion. Analysts were expecting slightly higher figures, with estimates of $0.84 per share in earnings and $13 billion in revenue, according to Fiscal AI.

Netflix CFO Assures Strong Growth On Global Streaming Expansion 

Speaking during fiscal second-quarter (Q2) earnings discussion, Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said the streaming giant remains focused on long-term expansion rather than short-term quarterly fluctuations, as the company continues to pursue revenue growth through subscriptions, advertising and pricing initiatives.

“There is a little bit of quarter-to-quarter choppiness in growth because last year was more back half weighted. So that may be a little bit of what you see in the deceleration. But honestly, it's not what we manage to. We manage to the full year. And halfway through the year, we're making strong progress against our goals, and we're tracking to our financial plan for 2026,” said Neumann.

Neumann said Netflix expects Q3 revenue to rise by 12% on a reported basis and 11% when adjusted for currency effects. He attributed the expected increase to continued subscription expansion, higher prices in select markets and growing advertising income.

For 2026, Netflix expects revenue between $51 billion and $51.4 billion. The updated outlook is narrower than its earlier estimate of $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion. Analysts currently expect the company to generate about $51.38 billion in annual revenue.

Neumann emphasized that Netflix believes it still has room to expand globally.

“It's roughly 800 million addressable households. We're capturing, we think, just 7% of addressable revenue market. It's about $670 billion of addressable revenue in the countries and categories in which we operate today. And we estimate that we're only about 5% of TV view share globally,” Neumann added.

traded over 8% lower overnight on Thursday.

Gary Black Says Netflix Faces Near-Term Challenges Despite Long-Term Potential 

The Future Fund managing partner Gary Black offered a sharply critical yet pragmatic breakdown of Netflix’s Q2 earnings report.

“$NFLX -7.7% AH after posting 2Q results in line with consensus but offering 3Q and FY’26 guidance that missed expectations. Mgmt is blaming the 2026 Winter Olympics and World Cup for its misses but investors will continue to focus on NFLX’ lack of new content,” said Black.

However, Black concluded, saying that the stock could be attractive for long-term investors if Netflix achieves its expected growth targets.

“NFLX mgmt will likely try to get investors to focus on 2026/1H hours viewed (+2% vs +1.5% in 2025/1H) but to me this level of unit growth is unimpressive. That said, if the company can deliver +10-12% long-term rev growth and +15-17% long-term eps growth (consensus), it looks cheap at 19.4x 2026 Adj EPS.”

What NFLX Retail Traders Are Saying 

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the stock improved to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bullish’ territory the previous day with a 455% jump in message volume over 24 hours.

A user , “ Still growing double digits in all regions, even its most mature market in US/Canada still 10% growth.”

Another user said, “time for the rest of the $15 billion buyback now. I’m in at $68 ish. I’ll buy more if it dips. It shouldn’t dip below $62. Anyway one way or another it will be above $80 before the years end.”

NFLX stock has cratered 20% year-to-date.