The News

 Netflix (NFLX) stock opened more than 8% higher on Friday after the streaming giant beat third quarter EPS and revenue estimates, and projected sales for the current quarter that came in ahead of Wall Street's expectations.

Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.78 billion to hit $9.83 billion in Q3, Netflix reported after the market close on Thursday, an increase of 15% compared to the same period last year. The growth came as the streamer continued to lean on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to last year's price hikes on certain subscription plans.

Netflix guided to fourth quarter revenue of $10.13 billion, a beat compared to consensus estimates of $10.01 billion.

For full-year 2025, the company sees revenue hitting between $43 billion and $44 billion, compared to consensus estimates of $43.4 billion. This would represent growth of 11% to 13% from the company's expected 2024 revenue guidance of $38.9 billion.

It expects full-year operating margins to hit 27%, an increase from the previous 26%, after the metric hit nearly 30% in the third quarter.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) also beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.40, above consensus expectations of $5.16 and well ahead of the $3.73 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to fourth quarter EPS of $4.23, ahead of consensus calls for $3.90.

Subscribers also came in strong with another 5 million-plus subscribers added on the heels of breakout programming like "The Perfect Couple" and "Nobody Wants This."

Subscriber additions of 5.07 million beat expectations of 4.5 million and follows the 8.05 million net additions the streamer added in the second quarter. The company had added 8.8 million paying users in Q3 2023.

"We expect paid net additions to be higher in Q4 than in Q3’24 due to normal seasonality and a strong content slate," the company said, citing upcoming releases like "Squid Game" Season 2, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, and two NFL games on Christmas Day.

Investors have praised the company's foray into sports and live events. Meanwhile, its ad tier continues to gain traction, accounting for over 50% of sign-ups in the countries where it's offered during the third quarter.

"We continue to build our advertising business and improve our offering for advertisers," the company said in the earnings release. "Ads membership was up 35% quarter on quarter, and our ad tech platform is on track to launch in Canada in Q4 and more broadly in 2025."

 To get a sense of who is truly in control of Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 86% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sysco.

View our latest analysis for Sysco

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sysco?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Sysco already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Sysco's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Sysco. The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 11%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 22 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Sysco

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that Sysco Corporation insiders own under 1% of the company. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own US$79m worth of shares. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 14% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Sysco. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.