Netflix buoyed by Wall St. upgrades

Netflix shares hit their highest price in a month after several analysts issued upbeat forecasts for the streaming TV provider.

Shares of Netflix (NFLX) closed Monday up more than 2% to $94.89. Prior to Monday's market open, Netflix shares had fallen nearly 15% so far this year.

Optimism about Netflix's growth fueled each of the reports. Mark Mahaney, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, projected that Netflix could approach 180 million subscribers worldwide by 2020. Such projected growth would generate more than $10 in GAAP earnings by 2020 and implies a stock value of $200 in 2019, Mahaney said in a note to investors Sunday. He issued a Buy rating for the stock and target price of $140.

Netflix's most recent subscriber numbers of 81.5 million subscribers globally include 47 million in the U.S.

The investment bank conducted a survey of 1,109 U.S. consumers and found more than half (51%) were current Netflix subscribers and another 16% had been, but were not current subscribers. "These consistently strong domestic results highlight, we believe, that Netflix has become a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. (perhaps, an Entertainment Utility), with an improving value proposition and new content that continues to bring new consumers onto the platform," he wrote.

With Netflix usage at this level, Mahaney said, it is "hard not to reach the conclusion that Netflix is winning/has won the U.S. Streaming Market despite continued pushes by its competitors."

Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Michael Olson was similarly bullish with an Overweight rating and target price of $122. His forecast for Netflix falls a bit below that of RBC's Mahaney with an estimated 141 million global subscribers by 2020, 63.2 million in the U.S. and 77.3 million internationally.

In conducting surveys of Internet users in Brazil and Mexico (1,000 in each country), the investment banking firm "found that only 8% of people in these countries have not heard of Netflix, 21% are planning to become Netflix subscribers in the next year, and 7% were subscribers at some point, but canceled. In our view, these are all favorable metrics."

Elsewhere, UBS analyst Doug Michelson reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and a $141 price target, Investors' Business Daily reported. He found that “Netflix is doing quite well across Europe despite intense focus from local competitors in each market, not to mention competition with Amazon (AMZN), who was earlier to enter the U.K. and Germany.”

RBC's Mahaney also found Netflix gaining traction in France and Germany, based on its surveys that also found that "satisfaction with the service remains high."

Netflix's original content seres as a "key anti-churn tool," he said. The most popular Netflix series, based on RBC's survey findings? Orange is the New Black, which returns for its fourth season on June 14.