netflix inc’s biggest cliffhanger isn’t a seasonending episode of “stranger things” or “money heist” but something much closer to home its financial metrics the streaming service which reports fiscal fourthquarter results on jan 19 is ditching guidance on net subscriber additions and instead focusing on financial numbers such as revenue earnings and operating margin as the tumultuous industry emphasizes profitability over subscription growth netflix nflx has reversed course in offering forecasts of net subscriber adds which have proved to be the one factor with the greatest influence on stock movement in recent years after missing estimates repeatedly in the past year and seeing its shares battered the company has also pulled an aboutface and initiated a lowercost adsupported plan to pump up sales the changes induced analysts such as jefferies’ andrew uerkwitz to take a sunnier position on a stock that lost half its market value in 2022 he upgraded netflix shares to buy in a note thursday on the prospect of advertisingbased video on demand or avod coupled with changes to password sharing to “drive top line outperformance” in fiscal 2024 uerkwitz predicts 404 billion in 2024 sales 7 over wall street estimates and adjusted ebitda earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization of 109 billion versus wall street estimates of 86 billion he added that netflix and walt disney co’s dis disney are likely to capture most of incremental connected tv ad spending despite a generally agreedupon view that digital ads will taper off in 2023 read more tiktok emerges as biggest winner as digital advertising faces its worst patch in a decade in its annual poll of 50 major ad buyers market researcher cowen found that 41 expect their largest clients to advertise on netflix a testament to the upside of its recent pivot to the adsupported plan and an adjacent partnership with microsoft corp msft  netflix shares have spiked 36 since it announced fiscal thirdquarter results on oct 18 “we view netflix as the best recession play in our coverage universe if macro conditions worsen” cowen analyst john blackledge said in a note wednesday maintaining a price target of 405 for netflix or 24 above its closing price of 32726 on wednesday indeed increased demand among businesses for more customer data has played to netflix’s ad plan which contributed directly to 13 of its total subscribers in december according to jon christian executive vice president of mediatechnology consultant qvest “netflix is so data driven and into demographics it raises the value on the ad side” christian said “we’ve gone from adding subscribers at all costs to a point where the market values on profitability and costs” in a note wednesday evercore isi analyst mark mahaney wrote that he considers netflix uber technologies inc uber and booking holdings inc bkng among the best ideas for “new money longs” this year not everyone however is bullish on netflix at least for the fourth quarter barclays analyst kannan venkateshwar cautioned that netflix is “on a path” to add 27 million subscribers significantly less than the 45 million the company has projected a drop in app downloads compounded by a plunge in viewership from last year’s record audiences for “squid game” account for the subscriber shortfall he said read more netflix could be in for a very rough quarter analyst warns analysts polled by factset are expecting netflix to report 784 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of 60 cents a share in the fourth quarter in the same quarter a year ago the company reported 771 billion in revenue and earnings of 607 million or 133 a share netflix shares have climbed 12 so far this year while the sp 500 spx is up 4 in the same period