Sports camera company GoPro has priced its shares ahead of its initial public offering at $24 apiece, setting the stage for them to begin trading on Thursday.
The Half Moon Bay, Calif.-based company had set a price range of $21 to $24 earlier this month for the sale of 17.8 million shares. By choosing the high end of that range, GoPro will raise as much as $427 million in an IPO that could value the company at more than $3 billion.
GoPro markets its lightweight, mountable cameras – which cost anywhere from $200 to $400 – to extreme sports enthusiasts who want to film their exploits on anything from a surfboard or bicycle to a hang-glider. More than just hardware, though, the company has recently been touting its credentials as a media content creator as users of GoPro cameras film millions of hours of video every year and often share that content on YouTube as well as via social media and through the company’s GoPro app.
The company, which will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol GPRO, reported revenues of $985.7 million last year, an 87% gain from the previous year, while profits nearly doubled from $32.3 million in 2012 to $60.6 million last year.
