GoPro Earnings Reflect Stellar Holiday Sales [UPDATE]

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By Chris Lange Updated Published
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GoPro, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) reported its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday after the markets closed. The extreme-action camera maker had $0.99 in earnings per share (EPS) and $633.9 in revenue against Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.70 in EPS and $580.33 million in revenue.

For the fourth quarter, cash and cash equivalents were reported as $422.3 million, compared to $101.4 million at the end of the same period of the previous year. Gross Margin was 48% compared to the 42% in the fourth quarter of last year.

According to NPD data October through December, GoPro capture devices accounted for three of the top five products, including #1, by dollar share in the combined digital camera and camcorder category.
GoPro shipped 2.4 million capture devices in the fourth quarter. The number in this quarter alone for capture devices shipped exceeded that of the full year 2012.

The company is really getting its apps and software going as well with GoPro App downloads exceeding 2.8 million in the fourth quarter, totaling 13 million downloads in the life of the app. GoPro Studio was installed over 1.5 million times in this quarter with average daily exports of over 30,000.

One of the biggest announcements in the quarter was GoPro’s partnership with Vislink to bring affordable live-broadcast capability to GoPro devices to the National Hockey League (NHL). The new technology was showcased in the NHL All Star Weekend. This was GoPro’s first agreement with a Big 4 team sports league. Live Broadcast was also featured in ESPN’s coverage of the Winter X Games.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, GoPro announced an agreement with Roku to bring GoPro content to millions of viewers this spring. The company also launched the GoPro Channel App for LG Smart TVs.

GoPro Founder and CEO, Nicholas Woodman said:

We’re feeling good. GoPro was one of the best-selling products this holiday, selling-in an average of 1,000 units per hour for the entire quarter. With this many new recruits to the GoPro movement, we’re sure to see some incredible content in 2015.

Just the day before earnings would be reported, Citigroup made a call for GoPro. The firm had a Hold rating and set its price target at $59. This implied upside of 8.5% from Thursday’s close.

As a reminder, GoPro has a large lock-up expiration coming soon. It is a rather large one, and that is being conservative.

Wednesday shares of GoPro closed up 4.8% at $54.37. In after-hours trading, was halted initially — and shares reopened and were up over 4% at $56.65 after reopening in the after-hours session. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $76.55 and a post-IPO trading range of $28.65 to $98.47.

UPDATE: GoPro’s soft guidance provided after the stock reopened and the news that Nina Richardson was resigning as Chief Operating Officer took all the wind out of the sails here. In fact, GoPro shares went from being up over 4% to being down over 10%. On Friday morning, GoPro shares were indicated down 13% at $47.30 right before the open.

ALSO READ: Credit Suisse Mega-Upside Top Picks for 2015

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.

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