With GoPro s stumbles continuing, the company s stock is again sliding.
In the midst of reporting a worse-than-expected loss, the action camera company warned late Thursday that it was delaying the launch of its next big product, a drone called Karma that the company and some investors are hoping will spark GoPro s revival. The company now plans to launch Karma in time for the holiday season; previously it planned to start selling the drone in the first half of this year.
The news was one more hard pill to swallow for investors who have already had to wolf down quite a few from the company. They responded as you might expect, selling off GoPro shares on Friday. In recent trading, the company s stock was off 44 cents, or more than 4 percent, to $10.27.
We believe that investor patience is frayed to the point that few investors will be willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt, Michael Pachter, a financial analyst with Wedbush Securities, wrote in a research note issued Friday.
Adding to investors pain, GoPro s revenue was about half of what it was a year ago and its bottom line went from a $16.8 million profit in last year s first quarter to a $107.5 million loss in the just-completed period.
GoPro has been spiraling downward since the middle of last year, when it launched the Hero4 Session camera. With an initial price of $400, the camera sold poorly. GoPro slashed the price twice to try to juice sales, but the net effect was to lower both its sales and profits.
This year, the company has cut jobs, twice posted earnings below Wall Street s estimates twice, and seen its chief financial officer depart. The company has been promising that Karma would offer breakthrough technology and help turn things around.
Maybe so, but for now things looks like more of the same.
Photo: GoPro s CEO Nick Woodman celebrates his company s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, Thursday, June 26, 2014.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The post GoPro delays drone, stock slides appeared first on SiliconBeat.
