GoPro Inc.’s share price up, rises by 31% after getting a market value of 3.9 billion dollars at IPO

The shares of GoPro Inc., which produces wearable high-definition cameras used primarily by extreme sports enthusiasts, jumped by more than 30% yesterday, making an impressive stock-market début.

Mr. Nicholas Woodman, the Chief Executive Officer of GoPro Inc., commented in a statement that was cited by Bloomberg: “Everybody of course was very curious about our media business and what we believe it can grow into. The answer is that it’s a natural extension of our existing business. Our focus is to help customers capture, manage, share quality content.”

The American company, which produces wearable high-definition cameras used primarily by extreme sports enthusiasts, gained 31% in New York trading yesterday, reaching a share price of 31.34 dollars apiece. This happened after the company carried out its Initial Public Offering, raising $427 million by selling the shares for 24 dollars apiece- the high end of marketed range.

The IPO gave the company, which has a decade-long history, a market value of 3.9 billion dollars. This result makes the IPO the largest one carried out by a consumer electronics company in about twenty years. The promising start and successful first-day performance highlighted the fact that technology growth stories are still attractive to investors.

Recently, hardware manufacturers are gaining more and more popularity among investors and big technology companies. For example, Apple Inc. announced last month that it reached a 3-billion-dollar agreement over the acquisition of Beats Electronics LLC. The Nest Labs unit of Google Inc. also stroke a deal, which amounts to 555 million dollars, with Dropcam Inc.

Despite the impressive first-day performance of the company, some investors expressed their concern that GoPro may be weakened by low-cost rivals. One of the technology analysts, who work at Saturna Capital – Mr. Paul Meeks commented for the Wall Street Journal: “You have a company that probably, over time, will face inevitable commoditization.”

GoPro Inc. was 30.58% up to close at 31.34 dollars per share yesterday.