Cathie Wood Is Buying Netflix Again. Here’s Her Rocky History With the Stock.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has attracted ARK Invest's attraction successful 2026, with the money accumulating shares during volatility that has near the banal good beneath caller highs. As of April 17, 2026, Netflix closed astatine $97.31, down 9.7% connected the time pursuing a mixed net report. For Cathie Wood, the dip looks familiar.

Netflix's Q1 2026 gross came successful astatine $12.25 billion, beating statement estimates, but per-share net of $1.23 fell abbreviated of the $1.34 statement estimate. The post-earnings driblet brought it beneath its 200-day moving mean of $105.88, a level that has historically attracted growth-oriented buyers. ARK's re-entry fits that pattern. The institution reaffirmed full-year 2026 gross guidance of $50.7 cardinal to $51.7 cardinal and raised escaped currency travel guidance to astir $12.5 billion. The advertizing concern is accelerating: implicit 60% of caller sign-ups successful ads markets chose the ad-supported tier, and advertiser number grew 70% year-over-year to implicit 4,000 clients.

Netflix aligned people with ARK's disruptive innovation framework. The cord-cutting thesis, planetary contented dominance, and linear TV's illness matched Wood's worldview. Netflix shares person risen astir 819% implicit the past decade, with important gains occurring portion ARK held the banal arsenic a halfway position. The 2020 streaming roar validated the thesis, and Netflix became a flagship sanction successful some ARKK and ARKW.

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ARK trimmed Netflix aggressively successful 2021, with reported single-day sells of $8 cardinal and $39 cardinal successful August 2021. The timing proved prescient: Netflix's 2022 collapse, triggered by subscriber maturation stalling, was severe. Over the five-year play ending April 17, 2026, the banal gained 78.05% from a split-adjusted $54.65, obscuring the extent of the 2022 drawdown earlier recovery. ARK's exit reduced vulnerability earlier the worst crash, illustrating the trouble of timing high-multiple maturation stocks.

What brought Wood back? The concern has changed materially. Netflix shifted from subscriber counts to gross per user, advertising, and unrecorded events. Advertising gross is connected way to scope astir $3 cardinal successful 2026, doubling year-over-year. Live programming, including the Canelo vs. Crawford combat drafting implicit 41 cardinal viewers, signals a caller contented layer. The stock's trailing P/E of 31x remains elevated but sits beneath the 2020 multiples Wood was consenting to pay.