Why it matters: GoPro's "late stage production delay" couldn't come at a worse time. As we head into the lucrative holiday buying season, the action camera maker won't have its new wares on the market until much later than originally anticipated and shareholders aren't happy about it.
GoPro earlier this week announced its next flagship camera, the Hero8 Black, alongside a modular accessory system and a dual lens camera in the GoPro Max. All seemed well for the action camera maker but a day later, the company cut its revenue and profit outlook for 2019 from between $1.25 billion to $1.28 billion down to between $1.22 billion and $1.25 billion. In terms of profit, that translates to from $0.37 to $0.49 per share down to $0.33 to $0.39 per share, respectively, citing a production delay with the new Hero8 Black.
The annual growth forecast, as a result, went from nine to 12 percent down to six to nine percent.
As a result, GoPro said it would ship its new hardware in the fourth quarter instead of the third as initially planned.
This, in turned, triggered a massive drop in GoPro's share price. As of writing, share value is down more than 21 percent on the news to $4.03. If the losses hold, it'd be the worst intraday performance for GoPro this year according to Reuters.
GoPro described the incident as a "late stage production delay" but didn't elaborate beyond that. Given the vague statement, it could be any number of things holding up production, from an actual on-the-line issue to something less severe like a packaging problem.
Masthead credit: GoPro camera by Stafano Garau