Netflix posts higher Q2 results but shares drop due to lukewarm forecast

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Netflix said Thursday its second-quarter profit grew thanks to new membership signups and price increases, which “had gone well and as expected.”

But the company's shares declined sharply in after-hours trading as the video streaming company's forecast for the current quarter fell below Wall Street's expectations.

Netflix earned $3.4 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the March-June period. That's up 9% from $3.13 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 13% to $12.56 billion from $11.08 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 79 cents per share on revenue of $12.58 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

For the current quarter, Netflix is forecasting revenue growth of about 12%. Analysts are expecting revenue to grow by about 13%, to $13 billion.

The Los Gatos, California-based company said its advertising business remains a top priority and it expects to bring in about $3 billion in ad revenue this year. Netflix added that it's seeing strong interest in its live events offerings, including the Women's World Cup.

Netflix said animated film “Swapped” is on its way to becoming its second-most viewed original animated movie, behind last year's wildly popular “ KPop Demon Hunters. ”

The quarter's most popular streams included Harlan Coben’s "I Will Find You," “Legends” from the U.K., "The Polygamist" from South Africa and the K-drama “Teach You a Lesson."

Netflix said it is using large language models to improve how its subscribers find things to watch and it's adding voice search functionality and artificial-intelligence powered natural language search.

In February, Netflix walked away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business.

Shares of Netflix fell $5.33, or 7.2%, to $69.02 in after-hours trading.