Netflix is back in Wall Street’s good graces.
Shares of the streaming video service surged 35 percent yesterday after it posted a surprise profit and added more customers than expected in the fourth quarter.
Netflix credited the strong results to more people buying tablets and smart TVs during the holiday season.
The stock soared $36.64 to $139.90 in extended trading after the quarterly results were released.
Netflix is up more than 80 percent since December, when it announced an exclusive content deal with Disney.
The quarter capped an otherwise rough year for the company. CEO Reed Hastings has defied critics who questioned his moves to expand the service globally while ramping up spending on content.
Netflix is investing in original programs, such as political drama “House of Cards,” to beat back rival video services from Amazon and Time Warner’s HBO, among others.
The company has also been striking licensing deals with major media companies to beef up its movie and TV offerings.
Netflix posted fourth-quarter profit of $8 million, or 13 cents a share, when analysts had expected it to report a 13-cent loss.
It added 2.1 million new customers to its US streaming service in the last three months of the year, raising its subscriber pool to 27.1 million.
“They did surprisingly well with subscriber growth and profitability,” Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett told Reuters. “It was a very good quarter.”
One big winner was investor Carl Icahn, who earlier bought 10 percent of the company at $58 a share, including options. His stake is valued at an estimated $434 million.
“We still own every share we bought and we believe it’s still got tremendous potential,” Icahn told Bloomberg yesterday.