Barclays Slashes Netflix Price Target: Why This Investor Says Disney Stock Is The Better Bet

Netflix Inc NFLX was featured as the call of the day Wednesday on CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report."

What Happened: Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar maintained Netflix with an Equal-Weight rating, but lowered the price target to $170 from $275, citing growth concerns.

The analyst acknowledged that Netflix currently has a strong content lineup, but he expects the company to report a loss of 2.8 million subscribers in the current quarter, which is worse than the company's forecasted 2 million subscriber loss. 

Why It Matters: Cerity Partners' Jim Lebenthal largely agreed with the analyst call, which is why he recommends buying Walt Disney Co DIS stock instead.

"It's got not just Disney+, but it's also got the theme park[s] and the movies. Movies are actually coming back," Lebenthal said.

So Disney offers investors more of a hybrid model than Netflix, which is almost entirely focused on streaming, he said. 

"The problem with the hybrid model, at least this year, is it seems like everything is going wrong or at least the market is perceiving that," Lebenthal said.

With recession scares in focus, investors are worried that theme park and movie attendance will stumble, he said.

"Even though that's not what's happened ... the story of the market this year is anticipating a recession that may or may not have occurred and if it has, it seems to have plenty of jobs, but I digress," Lebenthal said.

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Furthermore, Netflix's subscriber woes have tainted the likes of Disney and other streaming competitors like Paramount Global PARA, which Lebenthal also prefers over Netflix.

"Ultimately, I think this is an industry in which there will be winners and losers and I like Paramount and Disney for that reason," Lebenthal said.

NFLX, DIS Price Action: At press time, Netflix was down 0.49% at $184.97 and Disney was down 0.68% at $96.54, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photos: Tumisu and Skitterphoto from Pixabay.