GoPro sales grow 19%, but net loss widens

GoPro flew past Wall Street’s sales expectations in the March quarter after the action camera maker resumed sales of its Karma drone.

Chief executive Nick Woodman claimed the struggling hardware maker “is executing a turnaround” as GoPro reported sales of $219m, up 19 per cent year on year, even though its net losses widened to $111m. For the current quarter, its forecast of $260-280m in revenues was above analysts’ forecasts.

GoPro has been cutting costs and staff as it chases its target of returning to profitability (after adjusting for certain items) this year. Operating costs are down by $50m since the last quarter and headcount is now down to 1,327, more than a fifth below last year’s peak. Last month, GoPro said it would expand its job cutting programme which began late last year.

However, investors are not yet buying into the turnaround. GoPro’s shares, which have lost more than a third of their value in the last six months, were down another 1.5 per cent after-hours on Thursday.

The Silicon Valley-based company shipped 738,000 cameras in the quarter, up 5 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.

Karma, which had to be recalled late last year just weeks after its launch, has now become the second-best selling drone in its price range, GoPro said, suggesting that it is still lagging behind the market leader DJI.

A year after axing its entire entry-level camera range, GoPro also revealed that it would cut the price of its lowest-cost Session by $50 to $150. GoPro had said in February 2016 that it wanted to focus on the high end of the action camera market as it faced competition from Chinese rivals such as Yi.

GoPro recently announced that it would launch a new “spherical” camera, Fusion, aimed at virtual-reality filmmakers, before the end of the year. It did not reveal pricing or other details.