In Tuesday trading, shares of Netflix Inc. (NFLX, Financial) jumped almost 10% after announcing its first-quarter results. The company posted earnings per share of 64 cents on revenue of $3.7 billion, a 40.2% year-over-year increase. The company beat earnings expectations by one cent.
During the quarter, Netflix added 7.41 million new subscribers, of which 2 million were domestic and the remainder were international subscribers, beating the consensus estimates of 1.5 million and 5 million respectively. The company expects to add 6.2 million new subscribers over the next three months.
Streaming revenue growth was up 43% year over year to $3.6 billion. Further, it has 119 million paid streaming memberships and plans to launch in hundreds of countries.
On the other hand, shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Financial) plunged on the heels of the company reporting its financial results for the first quarter. The company posted earnings per share of $2.06 on revenue of $20.01 billion. The company´s revenue grew 12.6% from the prior-year quarter.
In a statement, Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky commented on the company's performance.
"Our Pharmaceutical business continues to deliver robust growth and we are pleased with the improvement in our Consumer business," he said. "In our Medical Devices businesses, we have areas of leadership and continue to make investments and portfolio choices to improve performance."
Looking ahead, the company increased its sales guidance for full-year 2018 to between $81 billion and $81.8 billion, reflecting operational growth in the range of 4% to 5%. It also reaffirmed its adjusted earnings guidance for full-year 2018 to be between $8 and $8.20 per share, reflecting operational growth in the range of 6.8% to 9.6%.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
