This Week’s Biggest Earnings: Did Netflix Have a Good Q4?

Live Sports to Bump Streamer’s Subscriber Base 

The standout name is Netflix [NFLX], which delivers its Q4 earnings after the bell on Tuesday. 

The streaming giant ended the quarter by streaming two NFL games live on Christmas Day. 

According to data from Nielsen and the NFL, 30 million viewers from across the world signed into their account to watch the Kansas City Chiefs–Pittsburgh Steelers game, while the Baltimore Ravens–Houston Texans game attracted 31.3 million. The games were ranked first and second in Netflix’s global top 10 for the week. 

The big question is: how many new subscribers were added in the quarter? Seaport Research Partners analyst David Joyce has forecast that it gained 9 million, up from a previous estimate of 5.7 million. He said the release of Squid Game 2 on December 26 should also have given the subscriber base a boost.

Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett expects the move into live sports to help Netflix to beat Q4 estimates. However, there is a risk that subscribers who joined just for the NFL games “could churn off” in Q1 2025.

China in Focus for Consumer Goods Giant

Another company that will be hoping the festive season brought some cheer is Procter & Gamble [PG], which reports its Q2 2025 results before the market opens on Wednesday.

Several analysts have lowered price targets in the past week or so. However, the outlier is Raymond Jones analyst Olivia Tong, who has reiterated her ‘outperform’ rating and price target of $190.

Tong said that consumers likely prioritized holiday purchases over everyday essentials during the festive season. Nevertheless, “we believe that over time, P&G’s portfolio and top- and bottom-line balance position it well to navigate a more volatile backdrop,” she wrote. 

Keep an eye on how China, in particular, has performed. In Q1 2025, the consumer goods giant saw a 15% slump in organic sales in mainland China. While the region accounted for just 7% of total revenue in fiscal 2024, it is seen as key to the company’s long-term growth. 

“The market continues to be weak and will be weak, we believe, for a number of quarters to come,” CFO Andre Schulten told reporters on the earnings call in October. 

P&G has ramped up its marketing efforts on Douyin, China’s TikTok, in recent months, which has helped shampoo brand Pantene to become the leading hair product on the platform. 

Surgery Robots to Boost Medical Device Maker

Demand for robotic-assisted surgery helped accelerate the rollout of the latest iteration of the da Vinci platform from Intuitive Surgical [ISRG] in the last three months of 2024. The da Vinci 5 system received FDA clearance last March. 

The medical device maker placed 174 da Vinci 5 systems in Q4, up from 110 in the previous quarter, and 493 da Vinci systems in total, up 19% from Q4 2023. 

“We think we’ve brought some first-of-their-kind technologies into the surgical field at scale. And I think that is generating some of the excitement in early adoption,” said Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart during a speech at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference last week.

Intuitive released preliminary Q4 results last week ahead of its appearance at the conference. Full-year results are due to be reported after the market closes on Thursday. 

Legal Issues Weigh on Pharma Stock 

Legal issues regarding its talc products have been weighing on pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson [JNJ] going into its Q4 results before the market opens on Wednesday. 

The company is currently facing approximately 62,000 lawsuits in the US that allege its baby powder and products containing talcum can cause cancer. It has earmarked $12bn to put an end to these cases, but a judgement on the settlement is not due until later this year. In the meantime, it is now facing similar challenges in the UK after more than 2,000 claimants proposed action in November. 

Investors will likely be hoping Johnson & Johnson’s leadership team provides an update on the earnings call.

The uncertainty around the legal issues means that even an earnings beat this week might not propel JNJ stock forward, at least in the near term. 

Jet Engine-Maker Faces Supply Headwinds

Reporting before the market opens on Thursday, GE Aerospace [GE], one of the three subsidiaries into which General Electric split last April, has been dealing with supply chain issues. 

CEO Larry Culp told Bloomberg TV at the end of October that shortages faced by more than a dozen suppliers are slowing the delivery of jet engines, including the CFM LEAP. 

“We have 550 engineers going in to work with those suppliers to identify bottlenecks, identify constraints and really solve those problems,” said Culp.

Despite missing analysts’ revenue expectations in Q3, the aerospace manufacturer lifted its earnings and free cash flow guidance for Q4. 

Other Notable Earnings Reports This Week

Tuesday: Prologis [PLD]

Wednesday: Abbott Laboratories [ABT], GE Vernova [GEV]

Thursday: Texas Instruments [TXN]

Friday: American Express [AXP], NextEra Energy [NEE]