Netflix shares had the biggest jump in four years

Netflix’s shares rose by 15% on Wednesday to briefly trade higher, a day after the company revealed in its fourth quarter 2020 earnings report that it was considering share buybacks and exceeded 200 million subscribers by first time.

It is the biggest jump since the company’s stock closed up 19% on October 18, 2016.

“We have gone from being a historic bass player on the NFLX to being a card-carrying bull,” Wells Fargo analysts said on Wednesday in a note to customers. The company also raised its price target to $ 700 per share from $ 510. At least 15 other companies have also raised their price targets.

The video streaming giant said it hopes to become positive cash flow after 2021, helping to create a positive case for analysts.

“We continue the bulls in the history of NFLX, as NFLX offers consumers a unique and increasingly attractive entertainment experience on virtually any device, without commercials at a still relatively low cost,” said analysts at Pivotal Research Group in a note in the Wednesday.

Netflix benefited from the stay-at-home boom, as the pandemic left millions of people in need of daily entertainment in the comfort of their homes. This probably helped push his paid subscriber count to over 200 million for the first time. It reached 100 million subscribers in 2017.

Netflix’s growth also comes as streaming wars continue to heat up, with competition from Apple TV +, Discovery +, Disney +, HBO Max from WarnerMedia from AT&T and Peacock from CNBC holding NBCUniversal. ViacomCBS’s Paramount + is set to launch in March.

“We continue to believe that the defense of competition hampering NFLX’s long-term success is overblown,” analysts at Jefferies said on Tuesday. “Some competitors will succeed, others will not, but the big picture is that there will be several winners in the OTT streaming space, and we expect NFLX to remain at the top of the food chain.”

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.