Netflix exceeded analysts' estimates on paid new subscribers for the first quarter on Tuesday (April 21) as it shares gained as much as 10% before falling to a slight loss following Netflix's first-quarter earnings release, which showed that the company has 15.77 million paid net subscribers for the quarter. 


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On new subscribers analysts were expecting 8.2 million net paid subscribers for Netflix for the quarter. It is to be noted that the guidance issued by Netflix before the coronavirus pandemic, was just 7 million. 


For the current quarter, Netflix is guiding for 7.5 million new paying subscribers, which is much more than a consensus of 4.14 million, and revenue of $6.05 billion (+23% year-over-year) and GAAP earnings of $1.81.


"Like other home entertainment services, we’re seeing temporarily higher viewing and increased membership growth. In our case, this is offset by a sharply stronger US dollar, depressing our international revenue, resulting in revenue-as-forecast," Netflix wrote in its quarterly letter to shareholders. "We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon."


Notably, Netflix has been one of the best performing tech stocks during the coronavirus pandemic. Streaming services have witnessed a spike in interest during the COVID-19 outbreak.