Trending tickers: Netflix, TSMC, ASML, Uber and Deliveroo

The latest investor updates on stocks that are trending on Thursday. Read More...

Netflix (NFLX)

Streaming giant Netflix, which is behind hit shows such as Bridgerton and Emily in Paris, is set to release its third-quarter earnings on Thursday after the market close.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect Netflix to report revenues of $9.78bn (£7.52bn) for Q3, which would be slightly ahead of the $9.73bn that the company guided to and up from the $8.54bn it reported for the same period last year.

Consensus estimates expect Netflix to post earnings per share of $5.16 for the quarter, versus company guidance of $5.10, and up from $3.73 for the same three months last year.

For the full-year 2024, analysts expect earnings to to hit around $19 per share, with 2025 earnings per share pegged at just under $23.

Analysts have also forecast that Netflix will report an additional 4.5m in net subscribers, a slowdown from the 8.8m it added in the third quarter of 2023.

Investors believe a potential price hike could be on the cards, with Netflix having last raised premium subscription prices in the UK, US and France in October 2023.

“Given Netflix’s low cost per viewed hour, we see scope for the firm to raise US prices by 12% in 2025,” Citi analyst Jason Bazinet said.

Shares were flat in pre-market trading on Thursday morning, having ebbed lower in recent days after hitting an all-time high closing price of $730 last week.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (2330.TW)

Chipmaker TSMC reported a 54% jump in net profits in the third quarter, with business bolstered by AI-related demand.

TSMC said net income had risen year-on-year to $325.36bn Taiwanese dollars ($7.78bn) in the third quarter, while revenue had increased by 39% to $759.69bn Taiwanese dollars (NT). The company posted earnings per share of NT$12.54.

Wendell Huang, senior vice president and chief financial officer of TSMC, said: “Our business in the third quarter was supported by strong smartphone and AI-related demand for our industry-leading 3nm and 5nm technologies.”

He added: “Moving into fourth quarter 2024, we expect our business to continue to be supported by strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies.”

TSMC said it expected fourth-quarter revenues of between $26.1bn and $26.9bn, and anticipated an operating profit margin of between 46.5% and 48.5%.

Ben Barringer, technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said TSMC is “not just an AI machine”.

“Other areas if the business are stable and they are much better positioned than both Intel (INTC) and Samsung (005930.KS) which have had their own well documented issues,” he said. “TSMC has positioned itself well and should any real downturn hit the sector, it should be in a strong position to weather this and emerge in a good place.”

Despite these latest results, TSMC shares closed Thursday’s session nearly 1% in the red, with weakness in the broader semiconductor sector.

US-listed shares in ASML, which manufactures lithography machines that are key to making chips, continued to fall on Wednesday and closed the session 6% lower.

The Dutch company’s Amsterdam-listed shares were trading nearly 1% in the red on Thursday morning.

ASML cut its sales forecast for 2025 in third-quarter results released on Tuesday. The company said it expected net sales to rise to between €30bn and €35bn in 2025, which was the lower half of the range that it had provided back in 2022 at an investor day.

Read more: Stocks that are trending today

ASML also said its results were published earlier than expected on its website due to a “technical error”.

The company’s update led other stocks in the sector lower, weighing on chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD), though they have since started to recover.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “ASML’s warning has spooked investors holding anything linked to the semiconductor space.

“It was a blanket sell-off despite ASML saying AI-related demand remains strong, which suggests investors are worried that this warning is the sign of things to come on a broader basis.”

Shares in Uber were down more than 2% in pre-market trading on Thursday, after the Financial Times reported that the company had “explored a possible bid” for travel website Expedia (EXPE).

However, Expedia shares surged nearly 7% in pre-market trading, following the report.

Uber has reportedly approached advisers in recent months, though no formal approach was said to have been made to Expedia, nor are there currently any discussions around the matter, a person briefed on the matter told the FT.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi led Expedia from 2005 to 2017 and still remains a non-executive director on the company’s board.

In another interview with the Financial Times, Khosrowshahi said: “Anywhere you want to go in your city and anything that you want to get, we want to empower you to do so.”

A spokesperson for Expedia was not available to respond to Yahoo Finance UK’s request for comment on the reports at the time of writing.

Deliveroo (ROO.L)

Another food delivery app in focus on Thursday was Deliveroo, which confirmed full-year guidance after posting strong third-quarter results.

Deliveroo said its gross transaction value (GTV) had risen 6% year-on-year in the third quarter to nearly £1.8bn, with the number of orders also ticking up 2% to 71 million.

The company said the GTV per order had also increased to £25, up from £24.30 in the third quarter last year.

Group revenues were up 4% to £498m for the three-month period, from £487m last year.

For the year, Deliveroo said it expected GTV growth of between 5% and 9%, while anticipating adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between £110m and £130m.

Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo, said: “UKI growth remains healthy, with improving order trends and overall we are pleased with the underlying growth in International, driven by the UAE and Italy.”

Shares in the London-listed business were up 2.5% on the back of the results.

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