Netflix’s Hastings on Stock Price: Euphoric Before, Okay Now

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings hasn’t been shy in the past about complaining when investors were roller-coasting his company’s stock price, but now that the video streaming company’s price is hovering around $400 a share, he’s okay with that

In the fall of 2013, Hastings infamously took investors to task for running Netflix’s stock price up more than 400 percent in one year to around $400 a share.

“There was this enormous euphoria” in the stock price back then, Hastings said Thursday at the Code Conference. “We’ve been down, we’ve been up.”

What was the point of saying that?

“It’s just honesty,” Hastings said. “There just felt like there was this hype fest” with the stock.

Netflix has been trading about $40 below its 52-week high share price of $458, but Hastings didn’t have any complaints Thursday.

It’s okay that the stock is that high now?

“I’m not as convinced as I was before” that people are being too euphoric in pushing the price up, Hastings said.

So it’s okay now, Kara Swisher asked.

“Yeah.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via