Netflix is the lone FAANG stock that has not hit a record recently.
The streaming stock is still 8% below its January peak even as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet (the FAANG stocks) hit records this month.
But, JPMorgan is backing the name. Analysts on Monday reiterated a bullish view ahead of Netflix’s earnings next Tuesday, pointing to positive second-quarter data and an impressive content slate through the rest of the year.
Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, isn’t betting on the stock to play catch-up, though.
“Whether it’s a FAANG stock, a big high-growth tech stock or if it’s a media stock … we’d rather place our money in those other options whether it be Apple, Amazon or Disney,” Wald told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “The issue is that [Netflix] just has lacked direction for pretty much the entirety of the last year.”
“Last 12 months it just oscillated, it’s been listless, it’s gone back and forth in a range. The levels to watch here? The stock can be considered more positive than not above $520 support, but is in the penalty box, if you will, from a longer-term basis, while it’s below $545 resistance,” said Wald.
Netflix was up more than 1% at $544.71 a share on Tuesday.
Michael Bapis, managing director of Vios Advisors at Rockefeller Capital, is paying close attention to expenses with these companies in the streaming space.
“The biggest question here in our mind is the future spend. You have to have good content, which is expensive, but the quality of the customer experience is probably the most meaningful,” Bapis said during the same segment.
Like Wald, Bapis is also in wait-and-see mode when it comes to stocks like Netflix.
“We’re thinking that we just sit on the sidelines I think for this space right now. It ran up so far so fast in 2020 and I think you’re seeing a pullback a bit in the space,” he said.
