Who Owns Netflix?

Since Netflix is a publicly traded company, no single entity owns it outright; nonetheless, Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Co. is the largest Netflix shareholder, holding about 8.6% of the company’s outstanding shares. Among individual shareholders, the largest is Reed Hastings, its former co-CEO, who owns an estimated 2.2 million shares in the company.

Top Individual Insider Shareholders

Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings is a technology entrepreneur and Stanford University alumnus with a degree in computer science. He left his job as a software engineer to launch PureSoftware. Subsequently, Rational Software bought the company, enabling Hastings to finance Netflix, which he co-founded alongside Marc Randolph in 1997.

Despite having sold most of his stakes since then, Reed Hastings remains one of the most significant insider shareholders at Netflix. He owns over 2 million shares representing 2.2 million votes, and is worth an estimated $1.5 billion as per August 2024 figures. 

His larger-than-life success story has inspired entrepreneurs worldwide, especially those within Silicon Valley circles, where Reed Hastings is considered a pivotal figure for his technical merits alone.

Greg Peters

Greg Peters is one of the significant individual stakeholders in Netflix’s stock. He owns 13,090 shares, less than 0.01% of the company’s total shares. While Peters has a vested interest in how well Netflix performs as a business, his stake is relatively small compared to the total value of its market capitalization. 

Peters joined Netflix in 2008 and served as its Chief Product Officer from 2017 to 2023. As CPO, he led the product team and was responsible for designing, building, and optimizing the entire customer experience on the streaming site. Before this role, he was the company’s International Development Officer, where he worked on expanding its international customer base and global presence in various markets. He is now the company’s co-CEO.

He serves on the board of directors for 2U, Inc., an educational technology services provider based in Maryland, USA. His collective responsibilities demonstrate his dedication to promoting innovation and developing enhanced customer experiences across multiple industries, both at home with Netflix and abroad with 2U, Inc.

David Hyman

David Hyman is not only an insider shareholder of Netflix but also a valuable company executive team member. He has been with the streaming service for over 20 years and currently holds 31,610 shares or about 0.01% of all outstanding shares in the company.

As Netflix’s General Counsel and Secretary, Hyman has overseen all legal affairs, which have allowed the service to grow and succeed. He is also responsible for public policy initiatives to ensure maximum compliance with government regulations and meet ethical standards.

Leslie J. Kilgore

Leslie Kilgore is one of the top individual insiders at Netflix, owning a total of 35,196 shares of the company’s stock. This represents a 0.02% stake in Netflix overall and is one of the largest, if not the largest, individual holdings. 

Kilgore has been associated with Netflix for quite some time, having served as its Chief Marketing Officer from 2000-2012 before joining the Board of Directors in 2012 as a non-executive member. While on the board, she has been an active member, and her decades-long expertise in streaming and digital media has played a significant role in its success.

Kilgore has numerous business involvements beyond Netflix, including serving on the boards of companies like Pinterest, Medallia, and Nextdoor. Leveraging her extensive marketing expertise, she offers a wealth of insight and guidance to ensure that each company optimizes its strategies for maximum efficiency.

Top Institutional Shareholders

Vanguard Group, Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. is one of Netflix’s largest and most influential institutional shareholders. As of August 17th, 2024, it owned about 37 million shares, representing 8.63% of the total outstanding shares. Vanguard Group Inc. is a mutual fund and ETF management company with $7.2 trillion in global assets under management (AUM). Its most notable ETF, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), has about $754.1 billion in AUM.

Fidelity Management & Research Co., LLC

Fidelity Management & Research Co. LLC is one of Netflix’s largest institutional shareholders. It holds approximately 21.2 million shares, representing 4.945% of the company’s total outstanding shares. The value of this stake is estimated at $13.335 billion.

Fidelity, a prominent global asset management firm, manages a diverse portfolio of investments across various sectors and industries. Their significant investment in Netflix reflects their confidence in its business model, revenue generation, growth prospects, and position as a leading platform in the streaming entertainment industry.

State Street Corp.

State Street Corp. is another major institutional shareholder of Netflix (NFLX), with 16.5 million shares, equating to 3.850% of the company’s total shares. The value of State Street’s investment in Netflix is approximately $10.383 billion. As of 2023, the holding company had about $4.128 trillion in AUM.

BlackRock, Inc.

BlackRock Inc. is one of the largest institutional shareholders of Netflix and owns 24.8 million shares, representing 5.79% of the total shares outstanding. BlackRock is a mutual fund and ETF management company with approximately $10 trillion in AUM. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), one of their largest ETFs, has around $307.3 billion in AUM, with Netflix comprising 0.61% of its holdings.

As an institution well-regarded for active risk management and diversification strategies across global markets, BlackRock’s considerable ownership position indicates confidence in Netflix’s business model’s long-term growth potential.

Capital Research Global Investors

Capital Research Global Investors is an institutional investor who actively manages funds. As of August 17, 2024, their portfolio encompassed 13F securities holdings worth around $456 billion, with Netflix being their fourth-largest 13F buy. According to MarketScreener, as of August 2024, the firm owned 11.9 million shares of Netflix, representing 2.77% of the total shares outstanding.

Their ownership position within Netflix allows them to influence decision-making from the company’s boardroom due to shareholder voting rights associated with the stock position held by Capital Research Global Investors.

Company Structure and Hierarchy

Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings as a DVD-by-mail rental service. Since then, it has become a global entertainment company with over 230 million subscribers across nearly 200 countries.

Netflix’s corporate structure consists of three primary groups: the Executive Board, which is responsible for setting strategy; senior management, which directs daily operations; and regional business units, which oversee local markets around the globe.

At the top of this pyramid sits Netflix executive chairman Reed Hastings, who co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1997 and has since guided them into becoming one of the most successful media companies ever created.

In addition to Reed Hastings, Netflix’s executive chairman and co-founder, Reed Hastings heads its corporate hierarchy. Several other high-profile individuals also play pivotal roles in driving Netflix’s growth. The new co-CEOs, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters (the former COO), essentially oversee all content-related decisions; at the moment, no one has been named the company’s new COO.

Other notable executives include Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann; Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee; Chief Legal Officer David Hyman; Vice President of Engineering Deborah Black; and Vice President for Finance Spencer Wang, among many others, all of whom contribute directly to Netflix’s success on both a strategic and operational level globally.

Reed Hastings’ role as co-CEO and co-founder

As founder and former co-CEO from 1999 to 2023 (he originally shared duties with Marc Randolph), Reed Hastings was responsible for setting both short-term objectives for immediate performance goals and long-term strategies focused on positioning Netflix for continued future success domestically and globally against various competitors now and emerging later from both traditional networks and cable players.

As the driving force behind innovative initiatives like “binge-watching” or the award-winning original series programming that helped shape it into what it is today, his continued leadership remains a crucial driver of continued innovation, ensuring that it maintains an edge against competition while leveraging available tech opportunities so that they can remain leaders in streaming video market share.

Even though he recently stepped down from the board as CEO (handing over to Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters), he is still very much involved with the company, providing the guidance and vision needed to keep them on the right track and ahead of the curve.

Conclusion

Netflix is a publicly traded company, which means ownership is distributed among many investors. Vanguard Group Inc. is one of the company’s significant shareholders, holding an 8.6% stake, while BlackRock, Inc. comes in second with 5.7% of shares.

The remaining shares are distributed among several other institutional and individual holders. In terms of individuals, Reed Hastings owns the most significant stake among other individual shareholders, amounting to ~0.5%.

Since its IPO in 2002, Netflix has seen tremendous success and growth, even though no single entity solely owns it. The collective efforts of all these shareholders provided much-needed financial capital that helped propel the streaming giant to become one of today’s most successful companies.