Netflix’s 10-Year 4,000% Rally Underlines Shift to Streaming

  • The stock has been the decade’s biggest gainer on the S&P 500
  • Concern has been growing over competition and user trends
Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
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Over the past 10 years, Netflix Inc. has led a revolution in the way the world consumes entertainment, and in doing so, it ruled over Wall Street.

The shares have soared nearly 4,100% since the end of 2009, a gain that at one point made Netflix a larger company than Walt Disney Co. by market value. No other S&P 500 component has experienced a return that approached anything like Netflix’s this decade; the second-best performer, MarketAxess Holdings​​​​​, is up a comparably paltry 2,600%. The benchmark index itself is up about 190%, while the S&P 500 communication-services index is up less than 60%.