Netflix: Street Estimates, Price Targets Keep Ratcheting Higher

The Street keeps raises its expectations for Netflix (NFLX), as the video rental service continues to expand.

• FBR Capital analyst Heath Terry today repeated his Outperform rating, lifting his price target to $85, from $71; the stock closed yesterday at $73.90. Terry raised his 2010 EPS forecast to $2.85, from $2.65. “As physical rental stores increase closures, NFLX develops additional streaming channels, and as the incremental growth in kiosks slows, we believe that subscriber growth could accelerate, particularly as NFLX rolls out its service to 28 million Wii users in the U.S. over the coming weeks,” he writes.
• Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold today raised his 2010 EPS forecast to $2.61, from $2.48; for FY 2011 he goes to $3.33, from $3.01. He thinks the stock can move up to the $83.25-$93.25 range, based on a 25-28x P/E multiple and a projected 3-year average growth projection of 26.5%. “We continue to believe Netflix is beginning to experience the positive benefits stemming from a much-earlier-than-anticipated shift to a more profitable subscriber base,” he writes.
• Caris & Co. analyst David Miller on Monday lifted his target to $87.50, from $74, while repeating his Above Average rating; the new target is 25x his above-consensus 2011 EPS estimate of $3.50.

NFLX is up $1.42, or 1.9%, to $75.32.