IN THE DARK

Netflix Stock Slips After Streamer Says It Won’t Share Subscriber Numbers

Despite a strong first quarter, investors were seemingly rattled by the company’s decision to stop reporting their favorite metric.

Netflix’s stock price took a dip on Friday after the streaming giant announced it would stop giving information on subscriber numbers to investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s stock price dipped to $561 per share on Friday morning, falling from $610 at the close of the day before. Despite a strong first-quarter earnings report that included the addition of 9.33 million subscribers following a password-sharing crackdown, the company’s decision to stop sharing the quarterly number of subscribers as well as the average revenue generated per subscriber seemingly rattled investors, since it’s the figure they monitor most closely. Defending its decision, Netflix said that data had become less relevant since its service now offers tier-based memberships at a range of prices. It also said that of those tiers, the $6.99 ad-based membership in particular had gained steam, growing by 65 percent since the last quarter.