Good fix for Netflix

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

FILE-In this Jan. 24, 2007 file photo, Netflix customer Carleen Ho holds up DVD movies, "Talladega Nights" and "Pirates of the Caribbean' that she rented from Netflix, at her home in Palo Alto, Calif. Netflix said Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, that its Internet video service added 2 million U.S. subscribers during the final three months of the year to produce an unexpected profit for the company. Here's a breakdown of Netflix Inc.'s subscribers as of Dec. 31 and details on its forecast (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)

Netflix has re-emerged as a stock-market star after a fourth-quarter performance that demonstrated its success in broadening the appeal of its Internet video service despite stiffer competition.

The results announced Wednesday served as a resounding endorsement of Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings, who has been spending heavily to license more compelling movies and TV shows in hopes of warding off intensifying competitive threats. Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Coinstar Inc.'s Redbox have expanded into streaming video to Internet-connected devices to compete with Netflix.

Hastings' strategy has been met with widespread skepticism, but it paid off during the final three months of last year.

Netflix gained 2 million video-streaming subscribers in the U.S. during the quarter, propelling the company to a profit during a period that was supposed to produce a loss. In a letter to investors, Hastings credited the gains to people's interest in watching a wide range of entertainment on the tablet computers and Internet-connected TVs that they got as holiday gifts.

"As the sales of tablets go, apparently so go the fortunes of Netflix," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said.

Investors were euphoric. Netflix's volatile stock soared $36.24, or more than 35 per cent, to $139.50 in extended trading after the numbers came out. If the rally carries over into Thursday's regular trading, Netflix's stock would hit a new 52-week high. It would also mark a nearly 80 per cent increase since the company's early December announcement of a licensing deal with The Walt Disney Co. for exclusive streaming rights to new movies beginning in 2016.

The upturn in Netflix's stock has been a boon for billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who began accumulating a 10 per cent stake in the company in early September when the stock was trading below $55.

Despite the recent rebound, Netflix's stock remains well below its peak price of nearly $305 reached in July 2011. That was around the same time the company outraged subscribers with a change that increased prices by as much as 60 per cent for those who wanted to stream video and still rent DVDs through the mail. Hastings has been scrambling to make amends since the backlash triggered mass cancellations.

"There is still an echo and a bruise," Hastings told analyst during a Wednesday conference call. "We are still extremely thoughtful and careful about what we are trying to do. It wouldn't take much for the issue to flare up again or for us to lose trust. You might say we are on probation at this point, so we are out of jail."

The fourth-quarter surge in new customers left Netflix with 27.1 million U.S. subscribers to its streaming service, which costs $8 per month.