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Netflix earnings shock: growth slows to 11.8%!

Company · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min read · Updated Nov 5, 2026

TL;DR

Netflix's sales growth slowed to 11.8% in 2026 Q3. In 2026 Q2 it was 13.4%. The profit side went the other way.

A record quarter, at a slower speed

Netflix's sales slowed to 11.8% in 2026 Q3. In 2026 Q2 the same measure was 13.4%. Revenue itself still set a high for the twelve quarters of data here, as the chart shows. So the company took in more money than ever, and the yearly increase was smaller than the quarter before.

Glossary
revenue
All the money a company took in from customers over a period, before any costs are paid.
growth
How much bigger a number is than the same number a year earlier, shown as a percentage.
Revenue and yearly growth, by quarter
Revenue bars reach their high in 2026Q3, while the growth line sits at its lowest, 11.8%.
Data table
periodrevenueyoy
2023Q4$8.8bn12.5%
2024Q1$9.4bn14.8%
2024Q2$9.6bn16.8%
2024Q3$9.8bn15.0%
2024Q4$10.2bn16.0%
2025Q1$10.5bn12.5%
2025Q2$11.1bn15.9%
2025Q3$11.5bn17.2%
2025Q4$12.1bn17.6%
2026Q1$12.2bn16.2%
2026Q2$12.6bn13.4%
2026Q3$12.9bn11.8%

A record and a slowdown can sit in the same report. Picture a car that keeps rolling forward while the driver eases off the pedal. Revenue is the distance travelled. Growth is the speed. The distance is a fresh high. The speed is the lowest in this window of data. My reading is that the base is now much larger, so each extra dollar moves the percentage less than it used to.

The profit side is doing better, not worse

Here is the part a headline misses. Operating margin reached 34.6% in 2026 Q3. That is 6.4 pp more than the same quarter a year earlier. Margin is the slice of each sales dollar left over after the costs of running the business.

Earnings per share tell the same story. Diluted earnings per share were $0.87. That is 47.5% more than a year earlier. So profit for each share grew far faster than sales did, which is an unusual pairing with a slowing top line.

How much did Netflix's profit per share grow from the same quarter a year earlier?

Show answer

47.5% It grew 47.5%. That is the surprise: the sales line cooled, and the per-share profit line did the opposite.

The share price still fell on the day

The market did not applaud. On announcement day, Netflix's return after stripping out the move of the four peers was -4.5%. That stripped-out figure asks one plain question: did the shares move differently from their group that day? The answer was yes, and downwards.

Netflix and its peer group around the release
Netflix's cumulative line reaches its low on announcement day; stripping out the peer move, that day's return was -4.5%.
Data table
dayseriesvalueseries_role
-10Netflix1.5%target
-9Netflix4.2%target
-8Netflix2.3%target
-7Netflix2.8%target
-6Netflix2.6%target
-5Netflix2.7%target
-4Netflix5.7%target
-3Netflix2.7%target
-2Netflix1.7%target
-1Netflix-0.0%target
0Netflix-5.3%target
1Netflix-2.4%target
2Netflix-4.1%target
-10Peer basket-0.3%peer
-9Peer basket-0.3%peer
-8Peer basket1.1%peer
-7Peer basket1.7%peer
-6Peer basket2.3%peer
-5Peer basket-0.1%peer
-4Peer basket0.7%peer
-3Peer basket-1.6%peer
-2Peer basket-0.4%peer
-1Peer basket-1.4%peer
0Peer basket-2.2%peer
1Peer basket-5.3%peer
2Peer basket-6.8%peer
-10Cumulative abnormal return1.7%neutral
-9Cumulative abnormal return4.5%neutral
-8Cumulative abnormal return1.3%neutral
-7Cumulative abnormal return1.1%neutral
-6Cumulative abnormal return0.3%neutral
-5Cumulative abnormal return2.9%neutral
-4Cumulative abnormal return4.9%neutral
-3Cumulative abnormal return4.3%neutral
-2Cumulative abnormal return2.1%neutral
-1Cumulative abnormal return1.5%neutral
0Cumulative abnormal return-3.0%neutral
1Cumulative abnormal return3.2%neutral
2Cumulative abnormal return3.1%neutral

The peer group holds 4 names: Meta Platforms, Amazon, Alphabet and Uber. Only 3 trading days of data exist from the release day onwards, so the after picture is short. The after-the-event figure therefore covers just the days that have traded, fewer than the full window this kind of check normally asks for. Counting from the release day, the difference versus that group adds up to 1.6%. The drop and the news landed in the same window. These numbers cannot tell you the news caused the drop.

Quick quiz

What was the odd couple in this report?

Show answer

Record sales together with cooler sales growth Sales set a high for this window while the yearly growth rate was the lowest in it, and profit per share grew faster than sales.

Risks

  • A four-name peer group is small, so the day-zero comparison may say little on its own.
  • The fourth-quarter figure is company guidance; past forecast accuracy is not in this data.
  • Currency moves or one-off items can distort any year-on-year comparison.

Sources

  1. SEC EDGAR XBRL companyfacts, Netflix, Inc. — data as of 2026-09-30; fetched 2026-10-22 14:43 UTC
  2. FinMind USStockPrice GOOGL — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-24 14:45 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  3. FinMind USStockPrice AMZN — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-24 14:45 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  4. FinMind USStockPrice META — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-24 14:45 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  5. FinMind USStockPrice NFLX — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-24 14:45 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  6. FinMind USStockPrice UBER — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-24 14:45 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges