HSBC downgraded Netflix from Buy to Hold on Sept. 22, cutting its price target 21% to $76 from $96. It cited YouTube’s growing audience: Nielsen put YouTube at 14.2% of U.S. TV viewing in July; Netflix’s share was 7.8%, according to TheWrap.
Netflix’s U.S. TV-viewing share had reached a record 8.8% a year earlier. YouTube booked about $11.1 billion in advertising revenue in the second quarter, CNBC reported; Netflix expects about $3 billion in ad revenue for all of 2026, according to its shareholder letter. HSBC said YouTube’s offers to keep creators’ videos exclusive could raise the cost of Netflix’s own creator push.
HSBC also cited a roughly 17% year-over-year drop in viewing hours for English-language shows in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 in July and August, according to TipRanks. Netflix said its “What We Watched” engagement report will become annual rather than quarterly starting in 2027, and it no longer reports quarterly subscriber counts. Wells Fargo cut Netflix to Underweight with a $57 target on Sept. 18. Netflix is due to report third-quarter results Oct. 20.
