Why Netflix, Inc. Stock Popped Today

What's happening:Shares of Netflix were up 10.8% as of 10:00 a.m. Thursday after the streaming video specialist's first-quarter earnings exceeded expectations.

Quarterly revenue climbed 22.7% year-over-year to $1.65 billion, which translated to net income of $26.3 million, or $0.06 per diluted share -- and that's after adjusting for Netflix's recent 7-for-1 stock split. Analysts, on average, were anticipating roughly the same revenue, but significantly lower earnings of $0.04 per share.

Why it's happening: Netflix also exceeded expectations by adding 3.3 million subscribers over the past three months, including0.9 million in the U.S. and 2.4 million internationally, bringing its total to 65 million. Netflix believes these additions were driven by a combination of the "growing strength of our original programming slate" -- which notably included Marvel's Daredevil and a new season of Orange is the New Black -- as well a 5% year-over-year increase in ASP in the U.S. thanks to the higher price of its new HD 2-stream plan. For perspective, last quarter Netflix added 1.7 million members, and told investors to expect Q2 additions of 2.5 million.

Finally, Netflix's international growth is made that much more impressive considering it didn't add new markets overseas during the quarter, but instead saw further improvement in existing markets. Consequently in the current quarter, Netflix anticipates net subscriber additions of 2.4 million.

In the end, after last quarter's equally impressive report, Netflix investors were left today with yet another solid performance, and 65 million reasons (and counting) to look forward to the future.

The article Why Netflix, Inc. Stock Popped Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.