Netflix is helping to kick off the latest earnings season with the streaming giant set to report its third quarter earnings after market close on Thursday. The company's stock price has steadily risen since the beginning of the year.

Netflix's share price ended the Oct. 16th trading session at $702. Shares are up a little over 44% year to date.

In recent quarters, the streaming service's stock has benefited from its crackdown on password sharing, its foray into live sports and the rollout of its cheaper ad-supported tier, which has amassed 40 million global monthly active users, as of May 15, Netflix reports. Overall, the streamer had 270 million total subscribers as of that date.

However, this upcoming earnings report may be one of the last times investors receive regular updates on Netflix's membership numbers.

In April, the company announced that beginning in 2025, it would no longer provide quarterly updates on membership numbers or data on average revenue per user.

"This change is really motivated by wanting to focus on what we see are the key metrics that we think matter most to the business," Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters said during the company's 2024 first quarter earnings call on April 18. "We'll periodically update when we grow and we hit certain major milestones, we'll announce those. It's just not going to be part of our regular reporting."

How much an investment in Netflix is worth

Netflix began trading on May 23, 2002, with the stock priced at $15 per share at the company's initial public offering. Since then, Netflix's stock price has soared along with the streaming service's popularity.

CNBC calculated how much a $1,000 investment in Netflix made one, five or 10 years ago, as well as when the company went public 22 years ago, would be worth today.

CNBC's calculations are based on Netflix's Oct. 16 closing price and don't account for potential stock price movements following the company's latest quarterly earnings report.

If you invested one year ago

• Percentage change: 95%
• Total as of Oct. 16: $1,946

If you invested five years ago

• Percentage change: 145%
• Total as of Oct. 16: $2,452

If you invested 10 years ago

• Percentage change: 1,259%
• Total as of Oct. 16: $13,586

If you invested when Netflix went public in May 2002

• Percentage change: 65,420%
• Total as of Oct. 16: $655,201

The passive investing strategy most financial experts recommend

Remember, no matter how well a company performs in the short term, it's not always indicative of how it will fare over the long term. A variety of events can cause stock prices to suddenly fluctuate, such as new government regulations, natural disasters or changing investor sentiment.

Rather than hand-selecting individual stocks, many financial experts recommend a more passive strategy, such as investing in low-cost index funds.

For one, index funds tend to cost less than actively managed ones. That's because they simply track an underlying market index, whereas actively managed funds often employ a team of high-priced managers and analysts who hand-select and trade securities.

Additionally, these types of funds can be an easy way to diversify your portfolio. Since they aim to mirror a market index like the S&P 500, your investment dollars are spread across a number of large companies such as Apple, Nvidia and Walmart. And because an index like the S&P 500 spans a variety of industries, it reduces the risk that a downturn in one particular industry will impact your portfolio's overall performance.

As of Oct. 16, the S&P 500 is up by around 34% compared with 12 months ago, according to CNBC's calculations. Its value has grown by a little over 95% since 2019, about 214% compared with a decade ago and around 430% since 2002.

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