Netflix shares are down 23% year to date. Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to underweight and cut its target to $57 from $80, citing a forecast decline in viewing; HSBC lowered its rating to hold and target to $76, citing YouTube’s gains and disappointing Netflix Originals.
Wells Fargo forecast that hours watched per subscriber would fall 4% in the second half of 2026 and viewing of Netflix’s Top 100 Originals would drop 21%. Kalshi, a prediction market, forecast Netflix app downloads would be 37% lower in September than a year earlier. Nielsen put YouTube’s US share of streaming-video time at 14.2%, up 0.8 percentage points year over year, compared with Netflix’s 7.8%, down 1 point.
The article says Netflix is still delivering double-digit growth with strong operating margins, but engagement must recover for the stock to rebound; it sees no clear sign that the company’s content-production pipeline is broken. Disclosures say contributor Jeremy Bowman holds Netflix and Wells Fargo shares, Motley Fool has a position in and recommends Netflix, and Wells Fargo and HSBC are Motley Fool Money advertising partners.
