GoPro Inc Shares Sinking On $19.8M Quarterly Loss

GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) shares are down over 10% in premarket trading Friday, August 1st. The firm reported disappointing second quarter earnings, including an unexpected loss of 24 cents a share ($19.8 million total in the red for the quarter). That compares to a six cent per share loss ($5 million total) in the first quarter.

This is the first real bump in the road for the action camera maker, as the firm only went public a little over a month ago on June 26th, and the share price had more than doubled since the IPO.

Action videos taken with GoPro cameras have hit it big on the web. In later June, the company reported that GoPro videos enjoyed over 1 billion views in Q1 2014 on YouTube, and its channel has more than 2 million subscribers.

GoPro 2Q earnings report details

In the 2Q earnings conference call, GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) execs noted research and development spending more than doubled to $34.7 million for the quarter, and that costs from its recent initial public offering on the NASDAQ increased general expenses.

The earnings report also pointed out that excluding one-time items, GoPro actually earned eight cents per share for the quarter. Furthermore, GoPro management said that it anticipated a seasonally stronger second half.

GoPro future guidance

Speaking at the second quarter earnings conference call, GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) CFO Jack Lazar forecast the camera maker was looking at earnings of six to eight cents per share in the current quarter on revenue of between $255 million and $265 million.

This figure is notably higher than the $244.6 million in revenues reported in the second quarter, but the 38% jump in sales was more than offset by heavy operating expenses of $119.5 million, nearly double OE a year earlier.

However, Lazar also noted that operating expenses would come back down, and were expected to return to between $92.5 million and $95 million in the current quarter.