Diamonds and Dogs

4/11/18

Netflix (NFLX) not lost in space. Netflix is up 3% ahead of earnings next week following an upgrade at Goldman with a $360 price target. Goldman predicts Netflix will post subscriber gains above expectations this year. The analyst predicts Netflix will add 1.7 million domestic and 5.6 million international subscribers in the first quarter versus its guidance of 1.45 million and 4.9 million respectively. Netflix stock is up 55 percent this year through Tuesday, which is the third best performance in the S&P 500. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan raised their price targets for Netflix early Tuesday. Netflix created and released the reboot movie, "Lost in Space" last Friday on their platform.

Fastenal (Fast) came unhitched. The industrial fastener company is down 6% after missing earnings estimates as sales came in at $1.19 billion up 13% year over year. Gross profit, as a percentage of net sales, declined 73 basis points to 48.7% in the first quarter of 2018 from 49.4% in the first quarter of 2017. Daily sales of Fastener products (used mainly for industrial production and accounting for approximately 35% of the company's first-quarter sales) rose 11.8% in the quarter, 3.7% of which came from the acquisition of the Mansco business. Non-fastener product Daily sales (used mainly for maintenance and represented 65% of the quarterly sales) increased 14.5% year over year.