Netflix's future plans do not include live video, but Romanian? Yes

Netflix has its plan and is sticking to it.

While competitors such as Amazon and Hulu dive into live TV, Netflix is standing its ground as the on-demand streaming leader in movies and TV series. The Net TV company expects to add its 100 millionth member this weekend and its shares hit an all-time high Monday after the company forecast higher-than expected subscriber growth in the June quarter.

After an initial, sharp drop, the streaming video provider's shares (NFLX) rose more than 1% to $149.25 after the company reported its first-quarter financials after the market's close Monday.

Netflix said it added 4.95 million new subscribers in the January-March period, slightly below its projection of 5.2 million new subscribers. Netflix added 6.74 million in the same period last year.

Overall, Netflix added 1.42 million new U.S. and 3.53 million international subscribers, bringing its total subscriber base to 98.75 million.

The shift of some first quarter content including the fifth season of House of Cards (due May 30) to the April-June period likely led to lower subscriber growth than expected in the first three months of 2017 but should result in better than expected growth in the second quarter, said CEO Reed Hastings in a letter to shareholders.

Netflix expects to add 3.2 million new subscribers during the current three-month period, nearly double the 1.68 million added last year.

Net income of $178.2 million surpassed expectations of the $165.82 million estimated by Wall Street analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Netflix's net income during the same period a year ago was $27.66 million. Adjusted earnings per share of 40 cents also surpassed the 37 cents analysts expected. Revenue of $2.64 billion rose from $1.96 billion a year ago.

Helping boost its performance is Netflix's growing international audience, which at 47.9 million represents nearly half of all subscribers. A sign of its expansion? This month, the company will expand beyond the 24 languages it currently offers programming in to add Thai and in the coming weeks, will also add Hebrew and Romanian. "The opportunity provided to us by the growth of the global internet is gigantic and our plan is to keep investing as we increase membership, revenue and operating margins," Hastings said.

Netflix faces increasing competition from Amazon, Hulu, YouTube and other streaming video entrants. Amazon recently won the rights to stream Thursday night National Football League games during the upcoming season.

But Hastings said the company remains focused on movies and TV series and doesn't see live TV and Net-delivered pay TV "slim" bundles as detractors. "Netflix is largely complementary to pay TV packages," he said. "Our focus also is on on-demand, commercial free viewing rather than live, ad-supported programming."

At CFRA Research, equity analyst Tuna Amobi maintained a Buy rating and increased his price target to $160 per share based on Netflix's "international upside and secular growth story," despite the billions it is spending on content, he said in an investor note issued after the company's earnings release.

That competition for content could eventually become a problem for Netflix, said Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, who has a $68 12-month price target on the stock. "As the cost of content continues to be bid up, we expect Netflix to continue to burn cash to fund its acquisition of original and exclusive content," he said in a recent investor note. "We expect international profitability to remain elusive driven by increasing competition for both content and subscribers, while domestic growth decelerates."

Netflix doesn't shy away from the fact that it continues to spend more than it brings in. In addition to its planned $6 billion spending on content this year, Netflix will also spend more than $1 billion on marketing, Hastings says. "We definitely see a big opportunity around the world to just continue what we are doing, which is make fantastic content, get people really excited about that content and then ...  just continuing to grow," Hastings said.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.