Shares of Netflix Inc. NFLX, -6.35% took a 5.0% hit in afternoon trading Wednesday, putting them on track to close at a five-year low, in the wake of a New York Times report that the streaming video giant plans to launch and ad-supported pricing tier and crack down on password sharing by the end of this year. BofA Securities analyst Nat Schindler reiterated his underperform rating but cut his stock price target to $240 from $300. His target is now the third-lowest of the 44 analysts surveyed by FactSet. Schindler said despite the acceleration of the rollout of a lower-priced, ad-supported service is Netflix’s attempt to boost subscriber growth during “what is shaping up to be Netflix’s toughest year in nearly a decade.” He said he lowered his stock price target amid expected saturation of the streaming category and slowing subscriber growth. The stock, which was headed for the lowest close since August 2017, has now plummeted 51.6% since Netflix reported disappointing first-quarter results after the April 19 close. Year to date, it has dropped 72.0% while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.65% has lost 16.9%.
