How To Trade Netflix Post-Earnings (NFLX, CSTR)

As

, Netflix (NASDAQ:

) soared today in pre-market trading and continues its double-digit growth, hitting levels over 14% over Wednesday's market close. Netflix's earnings reported profits of $0.87 EPS

, heartily beating analyst consensus of $0.71. Netflix reported its consumer base grew to over 20 million in the past quarter, and with the addition of 3.1 million new customers, Netflix is now the largest subscription-based company in the U.S. In the earnings release from Netflix's website last night, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells expressed that even they were impressed by Netflix's results. "To summarize Q4, we would say that our huge subscriber growth, fueled by the excitement of watching instantly, impressed even us." Elsewhere, "More subscriber growth enables us to spend more on streaming content, making the Netflix service even better in 2011." Unsurprisingly, many top-tier analyst and research firms such as Morgan Keegan, Oppenheimer, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch revised their price targets and upgraded Netflix ratings this morning,

.

maintained Netflix's Outperform rating, raising its price target to $230 from $200. Even more notably,

raised its Netflix price target to $220 from $125. Other analysts place Netflix's price target even higher. Pacific Crest set a $270 price target on the company and Merriman Capital analyst Eric Wold stated the stock could rise as high as $300 to $325, according to

. With the frenzy expected from Netflix's earnings announcement, some investors were ready to push the "sell" button yesterday, as

reported. Fear of a loss of momentum is cited as a reason options players are likely to expect continued volatility regarding Netflix shares. In the short term, Netflix shows no signs of stopping, maintaining its growth through the morning. Nothing lasts forever, however, and what happens after the stock levels off remains to be determined. For those who may want to play it safe, sympathy stock Coinstar (NASDAQ:

) is also up this morning with an increase of 1.36% at the time of posting from Wednesday's market close. Trading a stock with more stability may be a more secure bet.