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Bill Ackman says Netflix can rebound despite slowing growth
Ackman pointed to Netflixs ad business after its own Ads Suite rollout, saying ad revenue more than doubled last year.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said in a letter to Pershing Square investors that he bought Netflix and believes the streaming company has already won the streaming wars, even as concerns about slower growth have weighed on the stock. According to the report, Netflix shares are down about 35% over the past year and about 15% so far this year.
Ackman argued that the market may be focused on the wrong metric after the stock fell from more than 40 times forward earnings to about 21 times, in part because of worries tied to a collapsed Warner Bros. Discovery bid. The article also cites guidance that revenue growth is cooling toward the roughly 12% Netflix guided for the third quarter of 2026.
The bullish case in the piece centers on monetization rather than subscriber growth, noting Netflix has more than 325 million subscribers, almost double the combined total of its two biggest rivals. It says advertising is doing much of the work, with Netflixs Ads Suite launched in the US last year, and ad revenue reportedly more than doubled last year.
The article also lays out the counterarguments, including that streaming has matured and Netflix could face weaker momentum. It cites second-quarter revenue growth of 13.4% versus 17.2% a year earlier, a third-quarter guide of 11.7% that would be its weakest quarter in three years, and competition concerns including YouTube taking the most US viewing time in 2025 at 12.6% versus Netflix at 8.3%.