Netflix Has No Dividend. Here’s Why Long-Term Investors Should Own It Anyway.

Key Points

• Netflix isn’t sidestepping the sweeping slowdown the entire streaming industry seems to be facing now.

• The pioneer of the streaming business, however, still enjoys its highly profitable dominance of this market.

• Interested investors should recognize they’re buying into the strength and potential of the well-established brand name itself rather than any particular batch of numbers.

• 10 stocks we like better than Netflix ›

There’s no denying Netflix‘s (NASDAQ: NFLX) highest growth days are (probably) in the past rather than in the future. Not only did its second-quarter year-over-year revenue growth of 13.4% — the weakest growth rate of the past four quarters — to $12.56 billion miss analysts’ already-lowered expectations of just under $12.59 billion, but revenue guidance for the quarter currently underway was also disappointing, at only 11.7% better than 2025’s Q3 comparison.

Sensing this headwind could mark the beginning of a more sweeping slowdown for the entire streaming business, Netflix stock has performed poorly since April, and really, since reaching a record high in the middle of last year. That’s when the whole industry’s transition from its growth phase to its slower, fully mature phase began to become clearer.

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Nevertheless, long-term growth investors might want to own a stake in the streaming giant anyway, despite its complete lack of dividends. Here’s why.

Image source: Getty Images.

Being first, and now biggest, makes all the difference

While Netflix’s future numbers will almost certainly look weaker, the stock is still a solid buy for a pair of related reasons. Those are, (1) the streaming business is here to stay, and (2) Netflix is positioned to continue dominating it.

That doesn’t mean competitors aren’t trying to dethrone the market leader. In fact, numbers from TV-ratings agency Nielsen indicate that over the course of the past year, U.S. consumers are — albeit only slightly — decreasingly tuning into Netflix. Netflix is still the leading streaming name within the United States though, and according to data from Hub Research, the first streaming platform U.S. consumers visit when they turn their television on.

It isn’t doing too shabbily outside of the U.S. either. Its European and Middle East arm’s revenue improved 11% on a currency-neutral basis last quarter, and grew 16% in Latin America. Even its relatively small Asia/Pacific operation experienced a neutral sales growth 18% during the second quarter of 2026. That’s encouraging, particularly given that Netflix currently serves fewer than half of the planet’s broadband customers, and its programming only accounts for a tiny fraction of the world’s total television viewing time.

In other words, there’s room to continue growing even if its domestic presence may be peaking, according to Pew Research, a market-leading 72% penetration rate of U.S. households

Perhaps more importantly, there’s good reason to believe Netflix can and will continue growing here and abroad, particularly now that it offers an ad-supported option.

The foundation for this continued growth is two-fold.

The first of these folds is the fact that being the first name of its kind in the streaming business (it arguably created the streaming business, in fact) as well as the most entrenched, Netflix is the yardstick by which consumers measure all other streaming services. Indeed, the brand name itself is almost synonymous with the word “streaming” itself. That’s powerful. It means Netflix is the name consumers consider first. It also means Netflix has its pick of potential partners, if and when it chooses to forge such relationships.

The other piece of the argument that Netflix is positioned to continue delivering value-building growth is its sheer size and scale, and everything that comes with it. And chief among these upsides is wider profit margins.

Although most major streaming platforms are now profitable on an operating or EBITDA basis, it’s still unclear whether they are producing actual net profits. Netflix most definitely is, though. Despite this year’s slowdown, through the first half of 2026, roughly $6.0 billion (24%) of its $24.8 billion in year-to-date revenue was turned into ordinary net income, easily making this company the most profitable name in the streaming business. As such, it can spend as much as it needs to in order to remain ahead of its competitors. In light of this, the streaming industry’s broad slowdown actually works to Netflix’s advantage, making it more difficult for rivals to achieve the subscriber growth needed to better compete with the industry’s titan.

Netflix’s larger top- and bottom-line results are also a testament to the quality and depth of its content library, much of which is self-produced.

Durable dominance

Will there ever come a time when Netflix just runs out of growth runway? Sure. Nothing lasts forever.

That point is many, many years down the road for Netflix, though, and there’s plenty of opportunity for growth between now and then. An outlook from Mordor Intelligence suggests the worldwide streaming market is set to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 11% through 2031, matched by global growth of the ad-supported streaming business that Netflix is now in.

Netflix could continue growing nicely for far longer than that, though, simply because it’s got a powerful brand name that can be leveraged in a number of ways beyond the conventional delivery of on-demand entertainment content. This includes a deeper dive into theatrical films, the licensing and monetization of home-grown intellectual property, video gaming, and more. Indeed, it’s not inconceivable that Netflix could eventually even develop its own cable channel, utilizing the very cable television business it’s largely forced into a massive reset.

Bottom line? Unlike its competitors, Netflix isn’t just another struggling streamer that looks more like a late-to-the-party afterthought than a strategically intentional concept. It’s a reliably viable business with a powerful brand name that can be leveraged in a bunch of different ways. That’s the long-term growth potential you’d be buying into … even if it doesn’t pay dividends in the meantime.

Should you buy stock in Netflix right now?

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James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.