GoPro revenues skydive

Sports camera company GoPro desperately needs good holiday season sales after a terrible third quarter.

Shares fell more than 20 per cent in after-hours trading before recovering most of their value on Friday, after the company reported a 40 per cent drop in revenue.

Analysts were already expecting a hefty drop, but the 40 per cent was worse than they imagined. GoPro lost 60 cents a share on $241m in revenue, and reduced its full-year revenue prediction by $200m.

The company shipped just over one million devices in the third quarter, 36 per cent less than the previous year's. It blamed shipment delays and production issues, as well as a poor launch of its two new cameras last month.

The company hopes that the new cameras – and a new drone – will give it a boost going into the holiday season but, notably, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman only talked positively about next year.

"Looking forward to 2017, we expect to return to profitability, driven by the strength of our new products, double digit revenue growth and annual operating expenses of approximately $650 million," he said. ®