Shares of GoPro jumped as much as 6.63% to $56.81 at Thursday close after the company announced that it has teamed up with Google for a virtual reality system. The announcement came just a day after chief executive Nick Woodman revealed the company’s plans for virtual reality and drones at Code Conference. GoPro stock has gained more than 35% in the last 90 days.
GoPro’s new rig to synchronize all 16 cameras
The action camera maker said at Google’s I/O developers conference that it is coming out with a 16-camera rig for virtual reality content. The 16-camera rig simply houses 16 GoPros. But it is designed such that the cameras work together. CJ Prober, SVP of software and services at GoPro, told Forbes that some rigs are already there that integrate six cameras together. But those cameras are not synchronized.
The new rig allows you to turn all the 16 cameras on at the same time. Besides spherical footage, it also captures the depth of the image, which is crucial for creating 3D videos. The San Mateo-based company said its system will use Google’s new Jump technology to create a 360-degree view. GoPro’s 16-camera array has not been given a name yet.
GoPro short interest falls dramatically
Short interest in GoPro stock has declined considerably since the company reported its Q1 results on April 28th. As of April 15th, 19.27 million GoPro shares were held short with an average daily trading volume of 4.56 million shares. But the short interest plunged to 13.04 million shares while average daily trading volume also fell to 2.94 million shares on May 15th, according to data from Nasdaq. That is a close to 30% decline in the number of shares held short.
Why is short interest declining dramatically? Mainly due to an influx of positive catalysts and the lack of negative news. The company exceeded March quarter earnings expectations, and registered strong growth in international markets. It has announced to launch VR arrays later this year, and drones in the first quarter of 2016.
GoPro shares were down 0.77% to $56.37 in pre-market trading Friday.
