GoPro reported sales for the fourth quarter that slightly missed Wall Street targets while its first-quarter guidance fell well short.

Revenue in the three months ended in December rose by 24 percent year over year, to $540.6 million, yielding EPS of 29 cents. Analysts had been modeling $576 million and 24 cents. The company’s non-GAAP gross profit margin rose to 39.5 percent from 29.6 percent a year earlier.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $190 million to $210 million, below consensus for $271 million.

“In 2016, big investments in hardware, cloud, and mobile yielded a solid foundational experience for our customers,” said Nicholas Woodman, GoPro’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “In 2017, we will build on this foundation for our customers while improving efficiency and managing cost to achieve profitability.”

Recent GoPro highlights include:

  • GoPro’s board of directors appointed CJ Prober to serve as the chief operating officer.
  • GoPro experienced a GAAP loss of $116 million, or 82 cents loss per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2016, which included charges of $102 million for a full valuation allowance on U.S. deferred tax assets and nearly $37 million for restructuring costs.
  • GoPro was profitable in fourth quarter of 2016 on a non-GAAP basis with income of $42 million, or 29 cents per diluted share.
    According to The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, in the U.S. in the fourth quarter GoPro accounted for 3 of the top 5 products, including the top 2 spots, on a unit basis in the digital camera/camcorder category. Hero5 Black was the best-selling digital image camera on a unit basis in the U.S. Hero Session was estimated to be the number-two best-selling camera in the U.S. on a unit basis.
  • According to NPD, GoPro’s fourth quarter combined digital camera/camcorder unit share increased over 400 basis points year over year to 26.7 percent in the U.S.
  • According to GfK, in the fourth quarter GoPro’s digital imaging unit share in Europe increased 90 basis points year over year to 12.2 percent. Also in the fourth quarter, Hero5 Black sold through more units in a single quarter in Europe than any other GoPro camera.
  • China remains a top-10 country for GoPro with fourth quarter and 2016 sell-thru up 61 percent and 90 percent, respectively, year over year.
  • In the fourth quarter, the company released several GoPro accessories including Karma Grip, a handheld and wearable stabilization accessory, Remo, a voice-activated waterproof remote for Hero5 cameras, and Quik Key, a mobile microSD card reader that enables fast editing and sharing from a smartphone.
  • Instagram followers were up 53 percent year over year to nearly 12 million followers in the fourth quarter, driven by a 245 percent year-over-year increase in international followers.
  • Social media views of GoPro content reached approximately 238 million, up over 40 percent year over year, driven by a 160 percent year-over-year increase in views on Facebook.
  • According to YouTube, the equivalent of 22 years of content with GoPro in the title, description or keyword was uploaded to YouTube in 2016, a year-over-year increase of 35 percent. The hours of GoPro-related content watched on YouTube in 2016 increased 86 percent year over year to approximately 78 million hours.
  • GoPro Plus is set to debut in International markets in the coming months, with high retention rate amongst early U.S. adopters.
  • In the fourth quarter, the number of shares per month initiated from the Capture App increased 128 percent year over year. The number of people sharing content monthly increased 45 percent year over year.
  • The Quik mobile app was named one of Google Play’s Best Apps of 2016. December monthly active users and monthly exports tripled over the prior-year period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy GoPro