The Netflix Earnings Release: A How-To Guide

The

earnings release has been

for the last few quarters. Not the figures which indicate the company's performance over the last quarter -- the actual release itself. The release has been a cause for widespread confusion for both investor and the media recently. Below is a quick how-to guide on how investors can get to the most important numbers the fastest. (Of course, besides using

.)

- Netflix doesn't normally issue an after-hours press release offering all the important numbers in one place (Heaven forbid!). Instead, as a number of companies have recently adopted, the company releases results on its investor relations/media center page at

.

-

. While Netflix's results weren't available to the public until about 4:20 p.m. EDT last quarter (Q4), the company normally reports immediately after the close bell, at about 4:01 p.m.

- Click it!

to find the adjusted, or non-GAAP figure -- the one analysts compare against. An important note here: unlike the rest of the company's financial statements, the periods in this table will be switched. In other words, most of the release has financial statements showing the just-reported quarter to the furthest left and the year-over-year comparison to the right of that.

to find the comparable sales or revenue figure.

, which should be just under the first paragraph of the .pdf - guidance will be labeled "Q2 '16 Forecast" and should be the furthest right column of the first table.