As consumers quarantine themselves and lean more on home entertainment services, media and tech investors are looking for winners amid cratering valuations. To many, Netflix Inc. stands out.

Netflix shares have managed a 1.8% gain for the month of March, compared to a decline of 12.5% for the S&P 500. There is little doubt that Netflix's streaming platform is getting a boost in usage. But some analysts note that increased streaming does not necessarily translate to increased profits for Netflix unless the company is able to attract new long-term subscribers.

The Consumer Technology Association, an industry advocacy group, issued survey results on March 27 indicating that 48% of respondents are watching more streaming video in the wake of the coronavirus. Moreover, AT&T Inc. on March 24 said Netflix traffic alone is up to record levels across its networks.

"I see no downside," Moody's analyst Neil Begley said in an interview about Netflix's prospects.

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Even though Begley acknowledged that much of the increased usage is likely coming from existing subscribers, he believes that even in the highly saturated U.S. market, there are still holdouts who have not tried the service. A quarantine period could drive adoption on the part of those consumers, he said.

For example, many quarantined homes consist of adult children going to stay with their aging parents. If those parents have not yet subscribed to Netflix, this could be an important time of exposure to the product, Begley said.

This is in line with data from the CTA, which found in its survey of 1,004 online respondents that 26% are using streaming services for the first time.

Begley and other analysts also pointed to the company's prospects abroad, where the stay-at-home period could drive new sign-ups in unsaturated markets.

Further, Netflix could benefit from a lower churn rate — the rate at which consumers drop the service in a given period — which would benefit the company's net subscriber figure for the quarter, Begley said.

Netflix in January said it expects global paid net subscriber additions of 7.0 million for the March quarter, reflecting the continued, slightly elevated churn levels the company has seen in recent quarters in the U.S. But some analysts now believe global paid net adds could hit 10.0 million due to coronavirus. Analysts at Kagan, a media market research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence, say they expect a "surge" in net additions through the second quarter on coronavirus sign-ups.

But in a bearish note earlier this month, Needham analyst Laura Martin questioned whether Netflix will indeed see greater sign-ups or just increased usage among existing customers.

"All streaming viewing is up including Netflix. The problem with Netflix is it doesn't really participate in that," Martin said in an interview. This is because unlike ad-based services that generate more revenues with more eyeballs, Netflix relies purely on subscription revenue.

Leaving Netflix stock at "underperform," Martin warned in her earlier note that Netflix is largely priced as a luxury offering in international markets. Given the stress the coronavirus pandemic is putting on household incomes, some countries could actually see a decline in Netflix subscriptions even as usage rates go up, she said.

Rather, newer, less mature services like The Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+ stand to reap more benefit from the quarantine periods, and ad-supported video streaming services with lower valuations like Roku Inc.'s could see a better financial and equity benefit, she said. Even if Netflix enjoys a subscriber bump through the pandemic, Martin is unsure how long it would last once families leave their homes and readjust their budget priorities.

"We don't value stocks on a quarter or two," she said.

The current data available is just not enough to draw any conclusions on Netflix's financial prospects, said Dan Rayburn, streaming media consultant and principal analyst for Frost & Sullivan.

Usage data does not necessarily indicate new subscribers, especially at a time when people are rapidly readjusting their viewing habits, and any new sign-ups may be temporary. Further, Netflix has not made any fiduciary statements guiding investors toward changes in financial expectations.

"There are more people watching Netflix, but it doesn't matter if more people are watching Netflix," Rayburn said in an interview.

It also remains unclear whether production delays due to the coronavirus could hurt Netflix's pipeline of original content. The company has paused scripted TV and film production in both the U.S. and Canada for at last two weeks. Patrice Cucinello, director at Fitch Ratings, said Netflix's content pipeline is "probably fine" over the next three to four months but could be hurt if production cannot pick back up quickly.

"Near-term cash flows will be positively impacted by the halt in cash consumptive content production," she said, but noted that the positive impact will be short-lived as the company will need to "ramp up content investment once the crisis abates."