Netflix shares fall 11% after Q2 revenue misses expectations
The streaming giant posted $12.56 billion in quarterly revenue, but weak Q3 guidance spooked investors far more than the modest top-line miss.
Netflix just reminded Wall Street that even a 13.4% year-over-year revenue increase can feel like a disappointment when expectations are the real benchmark. Shares of the streaming giant dropped roughly 11% at market open after Q2 2026 results revealed revenue of $12.56 billion, narrowly missing consensus estimates that clustered around $12.58 to $12.59 billion.
The numbers behind the selloff
Here’s the thing: the Q2 results themselves were actually a mixed bag leaning positive. Earnings per share landed at $0.80, edging past the $0.79 consensus estimate. Net income hit $3.4 billion. Revenue grew 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year.
The real culprit was forward guidance. Netflix projected Q3 2026 revenue at $12.86 billion, which sounds perfectly healthy until you learn that Wall Street had penciled in approximately $13 billion. That gap, roughly $140 million between guidance and expectations, is what turned a minor earnings miss into a double-digit stock decline.
The stock had already started sliding 8-11% in after-hours trading on July 16, when the results were released. Netflix’s full-year 2026 revenue growth projection sits at 13-14%, down from an impressive 16.2% growth posted in Q1.
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What this means for investors
The most important number in the entire earnings release wasn’t the Q2 revenue figure. It was the $12.86 billion Q3 guidance. That number will now become the floor against which Netflix’s next quarter gets measured, and management will need to clear it convincingly to restore confidence.
Guidance-driven selloffs tend to have longer tails than earnings-miss selloffs because they change the forward model that analysts use to value the stock. The $0.80 EPS beat provides some fundamental cushion, but every price target on Wall Street is about to get revised downward against the new Q3 baseline.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) price
Full chart and statsLoading chart…
- Last close
- $66
- Close-to-close change
- +4.7%
- Market cap
- $272.6B (shares as of 2026-09-30)
- P/E (trailing)
- 19.2 (EPS to 2026-09-30)
- Annual revenue
- $45.2B USD (FY ended 2025-12-31) 10-K
- Annual revenue growth
- +15.9% (FY ended 2025-12-31 vs FY ended 2024-12-31) 10-K
- Annual net income
- 10,981,201,000 USD (FY ended 2025-12-31, attributable to the company) 10-K
- Annual operating margin
- 29.5% (FY ended 2025-12-31)
- Forward P/E
- Unavailable: no dated forecast source
Gloria daily close for session Nov 4, 2026. Market cap and trailing P/E use this close with the SEC share total and trailing diluted earnings, each dated next to its figure. Annual revenue, revenue growth, net income and margin show their own fiscal period and link the 10-K. Current context may postdate this article.
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