WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Online movie rental service Netflix Inc., (NFLX) Monday reported an increase in profit for the first quarter, as revenues grew from last year. The company's earnings for the quarter trumped Wall Street estimates, while revenues fell short of expectations.
Netflix added 6.74 million subscribers globally in the quarter, to end the quarter with 81.5 million subscribers. However, the company was only able to add 2.23 million customers in the U.S. during the quarter, which was trumped by 4.51 million International subscriber additions.
In January, Netflix had forecast 6.1 million total subscriber additions, 1.75 million in the U.S. and 4.35 million overseas
The video-streaming service provider now focuses on international expansion as it faces strong competition in the US.
'We are off to a great start in 2016, expanding the Netflix service to 130 new countries in January and finishing Q1 with over 81 million members on the strength of our fast growing slate of original content,' said the company in a press release.
However, Netflix's international expansion has come with higher expenses, as marketing costs increased to $208.0 million from $194.7 million, while technology and development expenses rose to $203.5 million from $143.1 million last year.
Moving ahead, Neflix provided a mediocre outlook for new subscriptions for the second quarter. Netflix expect 2.5 million total additions, including 500,000 in the U.S. and 2 million internationally.
Los Gatos, California-based Netflix's first-quarter profit rose to $27.7 million or $0.06 per share from $23.7 million or $0.05 per share last year. On average, 35 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.03 per share for the quarter. Analysts estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Netflix's revenues for the quarter rose to $1.96 billion from $1.57 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.97 billion for the quarter.
NFLX closed Monday's trading at $108.40, down $3.11 or 2.79%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further dropped $10.45 or 9.64% in the after-hours trade.
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