After four days of nonstop share price increases, GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) has bounced off a ceiling. The stock traded down some 15% Wednesday morning, after rising to a post-IPO high of near $50 a share, after its initial public offering at $24 a share. That high was posted Tuesday.
This morning’s drop was steep enough to trigger the Nasdaq’s short-sale circuit breaker, and as The Wall Street Journal noted Wednesday morning, the bears are out in force. The cost of borrowing shares has become one of the highest in its system, an analyst at a subsidiary of SunGard told The Wall Street Journal. The percentage of shares available to lend that are actually being borrowed is near 100%. With virtually all the shares that are available to borrow already out, the short sellers have to pay more to borrow shares, which may limit the action after shares fall far enough.
Wednesday’s action in the shares was predictable, even if the timing was not. A hot IPO that doubles in less than five trading days is a sure target for short sellers. And those who got in early are going to make a tidy profit.
But we have often noted that GoPro is not a typical technology IPO. The company is posting a profit, and it actually has a workable plan to broaden its revenue base by creating streaming video subscription-based channels using professionals in like surfing and paragliding, as well as extreme sports. Given that there are upward of 6,000 YouTube uploads of GoPro videos every day, this could turn into a real revenue stream for the company and expand its reach beyond a one-time hardware purchase. The company also has a deal with BMW that allows owners to hook up the camera to car’s on-board network.
Still, for now at least, the shorts rule. GoPro traded down 11% in the noon hour at $43.43, in a post-IPO range of $28.65 to $49.90. About 20 million shares had traded hands, out of a daily average of around 39.5 million shares traded.
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