GoPro went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange this morning after pricing shares at the top of their intended price range at $24. The action camera maker enjoyed an early pop as shares topped out just shy of $32 around noon before leveling out a bit over the past few hours.
GoPro managed to raise roughly $427.2 million by offering 17.8 million Class A shares and is the first consumer electronics company to go public since headphones maker Skullcandy did so in 2011. The IPO, one of the largest for a consumer electronics maker to date, values the company at $2.96 billion.
The company was founded in 2004 by Nick Woodman to address the lack of options available to those wanting to capture quality pictures while surfing. Things have snowballed tremendously since that time with GoPro selling more than 3.8 million cameras last year – up 66 percent compared to 2012. It was the top selling camcorder in the US last year and is sold in more than 100 countries around the globe.
Investors were no doubt impressed with growth over the past few years but some raised concern over a $20 million revenue drop in the first quarter. That’s likely related to the fact that GoPro hasn’t released a new product since October 2012 but as evident by the stock performance thus far today, shareholders aren’t too worried about it.
GoPro is trading under the ticker symbol “GPRO.”
