What happened
Shares of action-camera maker GoPro (GPRO -1.12%) surged up more than 11% in early trading Tuesday, settling down to something more like a 4.1% gain as of 12:30 p.m. EDT.
The reason for the stock's rise is obvious. This morning, GoPro announced that it's about to unveil two new cameras for sale in time for the holiday season: a $399 HERO 8 Black that's 14% lighter than the previous HERO 7, and a $499 HERO Max that can record 360 degrees of 5.6K video.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Precisely. So what?
The product names alone tell you this is not GoPro's first attempt at introducing new products. But despite seven or more iterations of its once-popular camera having already come to market, the company has seen its sales slump 14% over the last five years, as its profits swung from $128 million in 2014 to negative $31 million over the last 12 months.
Now what
Not to put too fine a point on it, but despite GoPro introducing some attractive new devices, there's still no guarantee that these new cameras will sell -- or sell profitably.
Until GoPro proves it can end a trend of more than three straight years of negative earnings and actually make money from its products, this once-hot stock will remain stone cold -- and the only folks making money on GoPro will be the 22% of shareholders who've sold their shares short.
