RESEARCH — THE FILING TAPE #14

Eleven of 83: The Superinvestors Doubled Their Netflix Shares While the Price Fell 25.7%

October 9, 2026

GetCoattail Research — Netflix has fallen about 19% in 30 days and sits near its 52-week low ahead of third-quarter results on October 20, with analysts debating slowing growth and softer engagement. We ran it through every filing lens we maintain. In the second quarter — while the price fell 25.7% — the tracked superinvestors more than doubled their share count, and four of them were buying for the first time.

Start with the narrative, because at the moment it is mostly a falling price. Netflix reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $12.56 billion, up 13.4% year over year, with diluted earnings per share of $0.80 against a $0.79 consensus estimate, operating income of $4.2 billion and an operating margin of 33.4%. Growth is decelerating: third-quarter guidance is $12.86 billion, up 12%, and full-year revenue guidance stands at $51.0 billion to $51.4 billion. The stock has fallen roughly 19% over 30 days and about 28% this year in quote-provider figures, trading just above its 52-week low of $65.08 against a high of $124.86. Analysts are split in public: MarketBeat's October 2 compilation put the consensus average target at $95.27 across 55 analysts, Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to Buy on September 29 while cutting its target to $95, and at least one firm sits at $57 with an Underweight rating. Third-quarter results arrive October 20.

Now the filings. GetCoattail tracks the investors best placed to know any company: superinvestors, institutions, insiders, Congress, and 5% holders. For Netflix — the fourteenth Filing Tape audit, after IREN, CoreWeave, Micron, NVIDIA, Tesla, AMD, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, Dell, Bloom Energy and Palantir — the lenses point in opposite directions, and the disagreement itself is the finding.

Lens 1: the superinvestors — eleven holders, and the cohort doubled

We track 83 large, mostly long-only managers whose 13F portfolios we collect directly from SEC EDGAR. As of June 30, 2026, eleven held Netflix in long common-stock positions — every reported row is a long position, with no option rows in the count. Their combined position is 37,355,486 shares worth $2,667,181,715. On a like-for-like pipeline basis the cohort more than doubled in the second quarter, rising from 18,299,675 shares across eight holders at March 31 to 37,355,486 shares across eleven at June 30 — up 104.1% — in a quarter when the share price fell from $96.15 to $71.40 in our price file, down 25.7%. The pipeline and EDGAR-collection second-quarter totals agree exactly, at 37,355,486 shares.

The direction counts are the story. Of the eleven holders, four were new, two increased, three were unchanged and two decreased. The new positions alone — 20,259,010 shares — are 54.2% of the entire cohort. The largest holder is new: Pershing Square's Bill Ackman reported 13,081,465 shares worth $934,016,601, a 4.8% portfolio weight, as a new position — 35.0% of the cohort by itself. Terry Smith's Fundsmith also opened new, with 6,990,345 shares worth $499,110,633 at a 3.66% weight. Among continuing holders, Bill Nygren's Oakmark increased 11.7% to 11,014,943 shares, and Thomas Russo's Gardner Russo & Quinn increased 1.8% to 5,710,088 shares. The two decreases were small: Greenlea Lane cut 1.3% and Polen Capital cut 18.2% from a 68,139-share base. The top two holders — Ackman and Oakmark — together are 64.5% of the cohort.

Netflix through six filing lenses
Chart 1: Signal presence by cohort. Superinvestors: 83 managers, 2026Q2 13F (as of Jun 30, 2026). Institutions: full-market 13F aggregation, same date. Insiders: Form 4 record through Oct 2, 2026. Congress: Senate and House PTR record through Oct 3, 2026. 13D/G: filings through Aug 6, 2026. Short interest: FINRA biweekly settlement data through Sep 15, 2026. Source: SEC EDGAR; FINRA; GetCoattail collections.

Lens 2: institutions — fewer filers, 15.03% more shares

Zoom out to the whole 13F market and the register moved the same way, in quieter proportions. At June 30, 2026, 3,364 institutions reported positions in Netflix, down from 3,558 at March 31 — a 5.5% fall — and 3,347 of them reported long positions. Yet reported share counts rose 15.03%, from 2,921,675,420 to 3,360,815,529 shares, with 1,925 filers entering and 2,119 exiting. The dataset's reported aggregate value fell 14.6% to $254,383,826,487, because the price fell faster than the share count rose; the aggregate includes option rows, so we treat filer and share counts as the reliable series and the dollar figure as reported (see methodology). Fewer names on the register, holding more shares in aggregate, into a falling price.

Lens 3: the 5% register — four filings, all passive, one reporting name changes

Four SC 13D/G filings cover Netflix — zero 13D filings and four 13G filings, from four reporting names, the most recent filed August 6, 2026. The largest current row belongs to Vanguard Capital Management, which filed a new 13G reporting 316,347,733 shares (7.49%) as of March 31, 2026. Alongside it, The Vanguard Group reported 0 shares (0.0%) as of March 13, 2026 — the same sequence of reporting names from the same index complex that appeared in our Palantir audit; we report the two rows as filed, without summing them or calling the zero an exit. The other chain is FMR LLC and Abigail P. Johnson, reporting the same position jointly: 5.1% as of December 29, 2023, and 3.3% as of June 30, 2026 (137,555,034.94 shares, filed August 6, 2026). A 10-for-1 stock split in late November 2025 sits between those FMR dates, so the percentages are the comparable series and the share counts are not. No 13D — the filing an investor uses when it wants something from management — has appeared at all.

Lens 4: insiders — zero purchases in the entire parsed record

The insider lens is the mirror image of Lens 1. Across the entire parsed Form 4 record for Netflix (389 filings through October 2, 2026), there is not one open-market purchase transaction — zero, in the 90-day window, the one-year window and the full record. Officer purchases are likewise zero in every window. The selling side is continuous. In the 90 days through October 2, 2026, insiders filed 40 reports covering 10 sale transactions totalling 179,765 shares and $13,187,186.55, by five sellers. Over the full year, sales total 125 transactions and $402,462,432.65 by eight sellers. Across the entire parsed record, sales total 729 transactions and $1,417,115,906.40 by 14 sellers, against zero purchases. Our site's insider aggregate, compiled as of October 9, 2026, matches the full-parse 90-day figures exactly — the same zero purchases, the same ten sales, the same $13,187,186.55. Some selling is mechanical — vesting, tax withholding and pre-arranged plans generate filings regardless of anyone's view — and we assign no motives. What the record establishes is narrower: in the same quarters when outside concentrated buyers were doubling their positions, no Netflix insider bought a share at market price.

Lens 5: Congress — two buys, one sell, and a purchase dated September 14

Across the Senate and House transaction record we maintain (as of October 3, 2026), Netflix shows two purchase transactions and one sale transaction, by two members, one from each party. The House aggregate carries both members and both purchases, with the most recent purchase dated September 14, 2026 — after the June 30 price fall and weeks before the October 20 results. The Senate aggregate records the single sale and no purchases. Congressional disclosures report value ranges rather than exact amounts, so we record direction only. The lens is small — three transactions — but it leans the same way as the superinvestor cohort's, and its most recent entry is the freshest dated signal in this audit.

Lens 6: short interest — 2.26% of the share count, 9.5% below its June peak

As of September 15, 2026 — the most recent FINRA settlement date — 94,187,131 Netflix shares were sold short, with days-to-cover of 3.60. That is 2.26% of the 4,163,939,676 shares outstanding in our fundamentals file (a share count as of June 30, 2026).

Short interest in Netflix, post-split window
Chart 2: Shares sold short in Netflix at each FINRA biweekly settlement on the post-split basis, Nov 28, 2025 – Sep 15, 2026 (n = 20 settlements). FINRA share counts before the late-November 2025 10-for-1 split are in pre-split shares and are not comparable, so the chart starts at the first post-split settlement. The series peaked at 104,117,446 shares on Jun 30, 2026; the latest reading, 94,187,131 shares on Sep 15, 2026, is 9.5% below that peak and 25.2% above the first post-split reading of 75,214,504. Source: FINRA Equity Short Interest files; GetCoattail collection (nflx_short_interest_series.csv).

Within the comparable post-split window, the borrow built from 75,214,504 shares at November 28, 2025 to the peak of 104,117,446 shares on June 30, 2026, then eased: the last five settlements run 99,746,573, 92,202,002, 90,512,500, 91,476,621 and 94,187,131. The latest reading is 9.5% below the peak but 25.2% above where the post-split series began — a large borrow that stopped growing over the summer without unwinding.

The gap, stated plainly

Netflix's filing record is split between the registers that buy from outside and the register that never buys from inside. The concentrated outside money moved in during the second quarter: eleven tracked superinvestors holding 37,355,486 shares, up 104.1% in a quarter when the price fell 25.7%, with four new positions supplying 54.2% of the cohort and the single largest holder a new $934,016,601 position. The broad register did the same in miniature — filers down 5.5%, shares up 15.03%. Congress leans the same way, two purchases to one sale, the latest dated September 14, 2026. Against that, insiders recorded zero purchases across the entire parsed record — not in 90 days, not in a year, not ever in the data — against $1,417,115,906.40 of sales. The 5% register is passive only: four 13G filings, no 13D, its largest row an index complex reporting under a new name. Short interest, at 2.26% of the share count, sits 9.5% below its June 30 peak. One plausible reading is that the second-quarter fall was met by outside concentrated buyers while the inside register stayed exactly where it has always been in this record — on the sell side only. The record supports each clause separately; it does not say which register is right.

What would change the picture

Nothing above is a recommendation. It is a record. These are the filings that would change the description:

Until one of those prints, the filing record describes a stock whose tracked superinvestors doubled their shares in a falling quarter — 37,355,486 shares across eleven holders, four of them new — whose insiders have never bought a share in the parsed record, and whose short borrow has stopped growing 9.5% below its peak.

Related reading: Two of 83: Palantir's Superinvestors Hold Just 62,063 Shares. Its Insiders Have Bought Once. — Filing Tape #13; Zero of 83: The Superinvestors Aren't in IREN — Filing Tape #1; 80% Overlap, No Copycat Signal: Congress vs. the Superinvestors. Netflix's own page: Netflix (NFLX) on GetCoattail.

Methodology and data notes

This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.

Revision history

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