Netflix stock soars after Bill Ackman’s hedge fund buys 3.1 million shares

Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre breaks down Netflix's stock hike after Bill Ackman's hedge fund buys more than 3.1 million shares, Mastercard beating its fourth quarter estimates, and Robinhood shares falling ahead of their fourth quarter earnings results.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: It's time to take a look at some of Yahoo Finance's top trending tickers. And we are watching shares of Netflix soaring in the session, seeing its biggest intraday jump since January of 2021 on news of a familiar investor taking a big stake. Ines Ferre is following that story for us today. Ines.

INES FERRE: Akiko, billionaire Bill Ackman's hedge fund has taken a stake in Netflix, buying 3.1 million shares. And you can see the stock-- the price action here up 8% in intraday. And this is, by the way, on track, this stock, for its third day this year of gains because it has seen a heavy decline year to date. And this is the decline that you saw prior to its earnings release. And then after reporting its earnings in January, it declined even further. In fact, Ackman noting that the market reaction to the company's latest quarter gave him the opportunity to buy at this price.

I want to mention another trending ticker that we're watching today on Yahoo Finance, and that is Mastercard. It's up more than 3%. This is after the company beat on the top and the bottom line for its latest quarter, with revenue coming in at $5.21 billion, adjusted earnings per share, $2.35.

Its current quarter guidance seems to be conservative, according to some analysts. Mastercard saying that it's seeing a slowdown in growth overseas and spending on cards in recent weeks overseas. And that's because of omicron and because of a slowdown there because of travel disruptions and also lockdowns in some areas. So that guidance put a little bit of pressure on the stock when it first opened, now up more than 3% after that beat on the top and the bottom line.

BRAD SMITH: Ines, also understand that you're keeping a close eye on shares of HOOD, as investors are going to try and figure out what's good in the hood as we get closer to the earnings report dropping after the bell. What can you tell us there?

INES FERRE: Yeah, that's right, Robinhood shares down more than 1% ahead of that report. Adjusted loss per share for the company is expected to come in at $0.42 on revenue of $370 million. Expect to hear details about the company's crypto wallets, that rollout. It's in beta version now. And the company has really been laser focused on crypto, on this new product and products surrounding cryptocurrencies that's seen a way-- it's seen as a way for the company to gain more customers.

Just keep in mind, I'm going to put here its market cap so you can see Robinhood's current market cap. It's sitting at below $11 billion. This is about a third of its valuation from when the company went public in late July.

And I spoke to an industry expert-- just wrote a piece on this. He's saying that at this valuation in the industry, this is seen as an attractive acquisition target perhaps. He's thinking perhaps the likes of a PayPal could come in and bid on Robinhood because PayPal in the past has said that it wants to get into this space. He said they could possibly buy it at pennies on the dollar as it relates to its IPO price.

This is American Airlines that we're showing here. I want to show you Robinhood. But nevertheless, you can see that this stock has been down year to date 31%. It's down more than 60% from its IPO price. Interesting that in the industry, this was seen as-- it could be seen as an attractive acquisition target.

BRAD SMITH: Wow, yeah. We'll see if there's any type of bidding war that revs up if that is, indeed, the case, and there are offers that get tossed out there. Ines Ferre, thanks so much for joining us here and breaking this down. Yahoo Finance's own Ines Ferre with the trending tickers here on the day.