Investors and analysts are keeping a close watch on GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) during the holiday shopping season, attempting to project potential growth during the all-important quarter. Dougherty & Company analysts report some signs of improvement in search rates for the company’s cameras and rising viewership for its media brand.
GoPro searches on the rise
Analyst Charles Anderson of Dougherty & Company reported some “modest improvement” in search numbers for GoPro’s products, reports Street Insider. The analyst included searches on Google and YouTube, as well as app downloads. He reminded investors that this data remains “somewhat inconclusive” because many of the cameras purchased within the last month still haven’t been opened because they are gifts.
As a result, the GoPro app has not yet been downloaded for the purchases.
GoPro builds its media brand
The analyst also reports continued progress in GoPro’s online media content. The company added more than 18,000 new subscribers to its YouTube channel, bringing the total number of subscribers up to almost 2.81 subscribers, according to Investor’s Business Daily. This suggests a growth rate of 39% annually.
GoPro also added more than 51,000 Instagram subscribers, which suggests a 74% growth rate. The company now has a total of 3.7 million followers on Instagram. Additionally, the company gained 26,000 new “likes” on its Facebook page, indicating a year over year growth of 21%. GoPro has nearly 8.25 million “likes” on Facebook now.
Anderson believes that over the last week, GoPro has kept growing the value of its franchise. Dougherty & Company has a Neutral rating on GoPro Inc. The company’s shares gained more than 1% in early trading today after tumbling more than 5.5% during regular trading hours on Monday.
GoPro lockup period expires next week
One of the big concerns right now is the expiration of a lockup on millions of insider-owned shares that were part of GoPro’s initial public offering. However, some analysts have said those worries are overblown and that the bigger concern should be the threat from increasing competition in the action camera market.
JPMorgan analysts upgraded GoPro last week, saying they see a potential buying opportunity heading into next week’s lockup expiration.
