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Netflix Bull Says ‘Bulletproof’ Service Can Handle Disney+ Challenge

Netflix Bull Says ‘Bulletproof’ Service Can Handle Disney+ Challenge

(Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. is well positioned to withstand the threat of Disney+, according to Piper Jaffray.

“New entrants into a growing market should not be a surprising phenomenon” and investors can be confident the world’s largest streaming service will be able to handle the competition, Michael Olson wrote in a note to clients Monday, reiterating his buy recommendation on the stock. “Netflix has, thus far, been relatively bulletproof.”

Citing research by his own firm, Olson found that Disney’s introduction of a new streaming service wouldn’t result in substantial subscriber churn. According to a survey of more than 1,500 Netflix users in the U.S., only 7% said they would cancel their Netflix account for Disney’s yet-to-be-released service. And Olson thinks that figure overstates the number of subscribers who would actually cancel.

“We typically find that a larger percentage of subscribers say they will cancel certain services than the percentage that actually follow through on it,” he wrote.

Netflix Bull Says ‘Bulletproof’ Service Can Handle Disney+ Challenge

Disney’s announcement on Nov. 8 that it would start a rival service wiped out $8 billion from Netflix’s market value at the time, but the shares have since climbed and are now 8.4% higher. Netflix dropped 4.6% Monday to $344.59 as of 10:03 a.m. in New York, leaving the stock 22% below Olson’s target price of $440.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamaron Leach in New York at kleach6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Brendan Walsh, Rita Nazareth

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