GoPro Inc.’s revenues topped Wall Street’s targets, driven by strong demand for its new range of cheaper action cameras from flagship brand Hero. The loss in the period was also slightly better than Wall Street’s targets.

“GoPro grew first quarter revenue 20 percent year-over-year thanks to strong global demand for our products,” said founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman. “We are innovating in all areas of our business and driving disciplined expense and inventory management. We believe this, combined with the release of exciting new products, will drive continued growth and as a result we are raising revenue and full-year non-GAAP profitability guidance for 2019.”

Recent GoPro Highlights

  • Revenue for Q1 2019 was $243 million, up 20 percent year-over-year. Excluding our aerial business, revenue would have increased 27 percent year-over-year. Wall Street was expecting $234.4 million.
  • GAAP gross margin for Q1 2019 was 33 percent, up from 22 percent in the same period a year ago. Non-GAAP gross margin for Q1 2019 was 34 percent, up from 24 percent in the same period a year ago.
  • Q1 2019 GAAP net loss was $24 million, or a 17 cents per share loss per share. Non-GAAP net loss was $10 million, or a 7 cents loss per share. Wall Street’s consensus estimate had called for a loss of 9 cents a share.
  • GoPro reduced Q1 2019 GAAP and non-GAAP operating expenses by $19 million and $3 million, a year-over-year reduction of 16 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
  • Cash and investments totaled $133 million at the end of Q1 2019.
  • GoPro.com represented over 10 percent of revenue in Q1 2019, growing 90 percent year-over-year.
  • GoPro’s Plus subscription service surpassed 220,000 active paying subscribers as of May 8, 2019, up over 10 percent since our Q4 2018 Earnings Release dated February 6, 2019, and up more than 50 percent year-over-year.
  • In the US, GoPro captured 89 percent unit share and 97 percent dollar share of the action camera category in Q1 2019, up from 86 percent and 95 percent, respectively, year-over-year according to the NPD Group. HERO7 Black was the No. 1 selling camera in all of digital imaging by unit volume, and GoPro’s three HERO7 cameras were the top-three selling action cameras according to the NPD Group.
  • In Europe, in the $199 and above price band, GoPro held 86 percent unit and dollar share in Q1 2019, up slightly from 85 percent and 84 percent, respectively, year-over-year. Three out of the top-five action cameras sold by unit volume were GoPro cameras according to GfK.
  • Within the APAC region – China, Japan, Korea and Thailand – Q1 2019 sell-through grew in aggregate by 11 percent on a dollar basis year-over-year, according to GfK.
  • Organic viewership of GoPro content achieved an all-time quarterly high in Q1 2019 with 173 million organic, non-paid views.
  • Social followers increased by 1.3 million in Q1 2019 to approximately 40 million, driven primarily by increases on Instagram and YouTube.
  • GoPro won Shorty Awards for “Best Overall Presence on Instagram,” and “Best User-Generated Content” for its Million Dollar Challenge Campaign.
  • GoPro’s YouTube channel surpassed 2 billion lifetime views on April 27. Viewers have now watched nearly eight thousand years of GoPro content.