GoPro IPO Lockup Snafu

By Chris Lange Updated Oct 3, 6:43AM EDT · Published Oct 2, 3:40PM EDT

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GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) saw its shares sell off on Thursday after a less than normal news release of a partial lockup restriction being released were out. J.P. Morgan acted as one of the lead book-running manager for GoPro’s IPO of 20.47 million shares that took place on June 26, 2014. The underwriter has agreed to release 5.8 million shares from lockup restriction to the recently established charity, The Jill + Nicholas Woodman Foundation.

When lockup restrictions expire, large blocks of stock become available for sale. Generally this will drive the price down as more shares enter the market. In recent years, this has happened with more high-profile technology and social media companies than can easily be counted.

Nicholas Woodman and Jill Woodman personally contributed these shares from their own holdings toward the foundation. The release will take place on Friday, October 3, 2014. According to Investor’s Business Daily, “GoPro has 125.8 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock. It sold 17.8 million shares in its IPO.”

GoPro had seen more than 24 million shares trade on the day and has seen its shares fall by 5% to 87.21 in the last hour of trading. Shares had dropped more than 10% on fears that this means several million shares would be sold much more quickly into the market. News from Dow Jones headlines signaled that this was done as a tax planning issue and that the foundation is not planning to sell shares which were transferred into the foundation. This helped to ease the burden on shareholders, and the late-Thursday share price was down lees than 6% at $86.50 shortly before the close. The range on the day is $79.13 to $91.00.

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GoPro has a consensus price of $75.13 and a post-IPO trading range (far less than a 52-week trading range) of $28.65 to $96.45. It has a market cap of nearly $11 billion.

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.