GoPro Stock Defies Weak Analyst Ratings After Quiet Period Expiration

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) has seen its quiet period come to an end. Shares were initially indicated higher by about 1.5%. Shortly after the open they were up over 3%.

We would point out that the brokerage firm reports seen so far from the underwriting syndicate were not overwhelmingly favorable compared to the post-IPO trading. A gain of this size is not the norm for what is simply very mixed analyst coverage.

The sporting and recreational wearable camera company had previously confirmed that the underwriters had exercised their overallotment option to purchase 2,670,000 additional shares. After it was all said and done, GoPro sold 8,900,000 shares and the selling stockholders sold 11,570,000 shares.

The actual IPO was at $24 per share for 17.8 million shares at the IPO price. On the opening day, shares opened at $28.65, hit a high of $33.00 and closed at $31.34. The stock rose for another three days in a row, ultimately to close at a high of $48.80, and shares have since settled back down at $41.43 as of Friday’s closing bell.

24/7 Wall St. has compiled a broker and analyst montage of the firms from the underwriting syndicate that have issued coverage. Again, the coverage is not likely enough to impress many new investors who are deciding whether they should chase this post-IPO high-flyer even higher. Coverage has been issued as follows:

• J.P. Morgan (book-runner) started as Overweight with a $51 price target
• Citigroup (book-runner) started as Neutral
• Barclays (book-runner) started as Equal Weight with a $45 price target
• Stifel (co-manager) started as Hold
• Baird (co-manager) started as Neutral and $43 price target
• Piper Jaffray (co-manager) started as Overweight with $48 price target
• Raymond James (co-manager) started as Market Perform

We have not seen reports from co-managers MCS Capital Markets and Allen & Company, and reports may not even be issued from those firms.

A week earlier came a report from JMP Securities starting coverage with a Market Outperform rating and a whopping $60 price target. Be advised that JMP was not listed in the underwriting syndicate.

GoPro closed at $41.43 on Friday. Its post-IPO trading range is $28.65 to $49.90 and its market cap is $5.1 billion.

Update 9:50 a.m.: GoPro shares were up about 3.8% at $43.04 on well over 2 million shares in just the first 20 minutes of trading, including the premarket trading volume.

7:00 a.m.: Shares were up 1.5% at $42.10 in early bird trading indications Monday morning.

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