GoPro Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 7, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today's Fotis Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Cameron, and I will be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Christopher Clark, Vice President of Corporate Communications.

Operator

You may proceed.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Cameron. Good afternoon, and welcome to GoPro's Q3 2024 earnings conference call. With me today are GoPro's CEO, Nicholas Woodman and CFO and COO, Brian McGee. Today's agenda will include brief commentary from Nick, followed by Q and A. For detailed information about our Q3 2024 performance as well as outlook, please read our Q3.24 earnings press release and the management commentary we've posted to the Investor Relations section of GoPro's website.

Speaker 1

Before I pass the call to Nick, I'd like to remind everyone that our remarks today may include forward looking statements. Forward looking statements and all other statements that are not historical facts are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. Additionally, any forward looking statements made today are based on assumptions as of today. This means that results could change at any time, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. To better understand the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from our commentary, we refer you to our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2023, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and as updated in filings with the SEC, including the quarterly report on Form 10 Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024.

Speaker 1

Today, we may discuss margin, operating expense, net profit and loss, adjusted EBITDA as well as basic and diluted net profit and loss per share in accordance with GAAP and on a non GAAP basis. A reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP operating expenses can be found in the press release that was issued this afternoon, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. Unless otherwise noted, all income statement related numbers that are discussed in the management commentary and remarks today, other than revenue, are non GAAP. Now, I'll turn the call over to GoPro's Founder and CEO, Nicholas Woodman.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Chris, and thanks everybody for joining us today. Today, Brian and I will share brief remarks before going into Q and A, and I want to encourage all on the call to read the detailed management commentary we posted to our Investor Relations website. In Q3, GoPro exceeded guidance with revenue of $259,000,000 Subscription and service revenue grew 11% year over year to $27,500,000 primarily driven by ARPU growth of 9% and overall subscriber growth of 2%. EPS was breakeven on a non GAAP basis and EBITDA was 5,000,000 dollars a $39,000,000 improvement sequentially. Despite these directionally positive Q3 results, this continues to be a challenging year for GoPro as we navigate global macroeconomic headwinds impacting consumer discretionary spending, the previously mentioned delay of our new 3 60 degree camera and competition.

Speaker 2

While GoPro welcomes fair competition as it encourages innovation and fosters a vibrant market for consumers, the principles of fair competition are not served by companies that seek to profit from the hard work, investment and innovation of others. We will litigate in the interest of protecting our inventions and we understand the time and cost associated with defending our IP. GoPro has invested substantial time, effort and money into a culture of innovation over the past 20 years, researching and developing leading edge technologies that have enabled new ways of capturing and new categories of cameras, whether that's being the first to enable ultra wide angle perspectives in consumer cameras, inventing market leading in camera video stabilization or pioneering convenient 360 degree capture. This culture of innovation has allowed us to build a patent portfolio consistently recognized by industry experts for its quality, depth and variety. Our patent portfolio is in place to protect our inventions and IP and we are committed to taking action to protect these assets when necessary.

Speaker 2

Earlier this year, we filed a complaint with the U. S. International Trade Commission and a lawsuit in the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California against one of our competitors with the goal to enforce certain GoPro patents related to our cameras and digital imaging technology.

Speaker 2

Again, GoPro welcomes fair competition, but we will litigate to protect our IP when we believe it is being infringed. As we shared in our Q2 earnings, the consumer digital imaging market is growing, driven by new products catering to consumers' growing interest in alternative forms of capture beyond the phone. We are seeing growth in the action camera market, 3 60 degree cameras and other new types of cameras. We believe our product roadmap positions us to participate in these growth areas and more. To better position ourselves to participate in this growth as a profitable company, in 2025 and beyond, we've taken a more aggressive approach to reduce 2025 operating expenses significantly below what we shared on our last earnings call.

Speaker 2

We are now targeting 2025 operating expenses of $250,000,000 a reduction of approximately $110,000,000 from 2024. I want to be clear, we are not cutting our way to profitability. We are changing our approach to operate in a leaner, more focused manner that we believe will be sustainable and strategic for long term success and improved financial performance. We are reducing our operating expenses to the lowest level since before going public, while pursuing a product roadmap we believe will drive innovation, differentiation and growth. In September, we launched 2 new products.

Speaker 2

Our flagship HERO13 Black is loaded with leading edge technology, performance and convenience that includes a suite of innovative new lens mops that massively enhance a user's creative potential. We also launched our new entry level camera, the Tiny Hero camera. Priced at $199 Hero is our most affordable camera, making it ideal for travelers, creators, families, kids, adventure seekers and gift givers looking for the simplest lightest 4 ks GoPro. And importantly, Hero has been newly designed from the ground up to yield a better profit margin than our previous entry level cameras. And we continue to execute on the global retail expansion strategy we announced in May 2023, having added approximately 6,300 new doors since then, bringing our total doors to over 25,000.

Speaker 2

In Q3, we added more than 1200 doors globally, including approximately 500 Sam's Club's doors in the U. S. Expanding our global retail footprint to this level not only allows us to reach more consumers with our current products, but also serves as an important foundation for future launches as we expand our product offerings. In summary, we are working through our business challenges and feel good about our go forward strategy. We are reducing 2025 operating expenses to the lowest level since before going public, while pursuing a product roadmap we believe will drive innovation, differentiation and growth.

Speaker 2

We are excited to operate GoPro in a leaner manner as we believe it will yield better execution, efficiency and improved financial performance. Now I'll pass the call to Brian to share some details on our financials and outlook.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Nick. I'd like to first share some notable business highlights. In Q3, subscription and service revenue grew 11% year over year to 27,500,000 dollars primarily from 9% ARPU growth driven by improving our aggregate retention rate, which was up 4% year over year to 67% as well as growth of our premium plus subscribers. Also in Q3, subscribers grew 2% year over year to 2,560,000 including 54,000 Premium Plus subscribers and subscription attach rate from cameras sold across all channels was 45% in line with prior year attach rates. 3rd quarter EBITDA was positive $5,000,000 a $39,000,000 sequential improvement.

Speaker 3

For the second half of twenty twenty four, gross margin is expected to be 36%, a 2 50 basis point improvement year over year as we had outlined in the first half of twenty twenty four. Turning to the balance sheet, we expect cash to be approximately $125,000,000 at the end of the year. We recently conducted a restructuring to reduce operating expenses by $110,000,000 to approximately $250,000,000 in 2025, down from $360,000,000 in 2024. Looking ahead to 2025, we expect units and revenue to be lower than 2024, primarily driven by macroeconomic headwinds, competition and the delay of our new 3 60 degree camera, which we expect to launch in 2025. We anticipate Street ASP to be in the range of $3.35 to $3.45 in 20.25, a 5% improvement over 2024.

Speaker 3

We expect gross margin to improve from 34% in 2024 to a range of 35% to 36% in 2025. We expect our operating expenses to be between 245 $1,000,000 $255,000,000 as a result of the 26% reduction in headcount and other expense reductions taken in 2024. This represents an annual reduction of $110,000,000 from projected 2024 spending and represents the lowest level of operating expenses since before becoming a publicly listed company. In addition, our expectation is for Q1 of 2025 operating expense level of approximately $60,000,000 or down nearly 30% year over year. We believe this annual level of spend enables us to pursue a diversified and innovative roadmap that we believe will extend GoPro's leadership in the markets we serve and restore unit and revenue growth in 2026.

Speaker 3

In summary, as we work through our business challenges, we are adjusting GoPro's operating model to be more efficient to yield improved financial results. We are excited about 2025. We expect to launch new products while preserving cash to repay our debt and importantly position ourselves for profitability in 2025. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from the line of Martin Yang with Oppenheimer. You may proceed.

Speaker 4

Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about the litigation. What do you consider as the ideal outcome of the U. S. ITC investigation?

Speaker 2

Hi, Martin. Thanks for that. The litigation is to defend our IP, which we believe is being infringed. And the I would say what I can say is the ideal outcome is that, the ITC would recognize this infringement, would recognize and validate the validity of our patents and our IP. And that any products that are being sold into the United States market that are infringing, sold in by the company in question that they would no longer be able to sell those products into the United States market.

Speaker 3

Got it.

Speaker 4

And is there any timeline or expected date for the investigation to conclude?

Speaker 2

We expect in general terms a conclusion in 2025.

Speaker 3

Got

Speaker 4

it. Thank you. My next question is on the 2025 outlook. If you were to rank the different headwinds you outlined, what would be the most impactful to the 2025 outlook? Will be the least impactful?

Speaker 4

And how do you reconcile the number of retail doors that you have grown over the year to that reduced outlook?

Speaker 3

Yes. Maybe I'll start and Nick, you can come over the top. Macroeconomic is probably one of the biggest. We're seeing that here in the U. S.

Speaker 3

China in the Q3 was down significantly as a market. They're having their issues. We finally saw a little bit of sliding in Europe. Europe has been a stronger market for us, followed by we have to get our new 3 60 camera out Martin. So that's a growth that's a market that's growing.

Speaker 3

We see that across Turkana and DFK. So we need to get that product in the market and resume selling and of course there's competition. So I would kind of put them in that order. We got to get products out into the market.

Speaker 4

Got it. My final question on competition. Do you see most of the sheer erosion happening on the 3 60 degree camera category? Or do you see more happening for the main camera, the action camera category?

Speaker 3

I'll take the biggest if you want to chime in. Go ahead.

Speaker 2

Sure.

Speaker 3

No, no, you go ahead. Yes. I would say that the action camera category one is actually growing slightly. And we're seeing if you think about alternative capture 360, it's definitely been a growth category. Again, I'll reiterate that's why we needed to get a product back in the market.

Speaker 3

And there's other forms of capture that are growing as well, particularly in blogging. So those are areas of opportunity for us to grow into those markets.

Speaker 2

Yes. I would say the biggest share hit, Martin, is in 360, due to the delay of the launch of our new camera. We are seeing some share erosion in the hero camera category, action category as well. The biggest revenue impact though is coming from us not launching our Max 2 360 camera. And as it relates to reconcilating the new door growth globally with sell through and some of the challenges that we're facing be it macroeconomic, not having launched our 3 60 camera or some competition.

Speaker 2

I'd say that we're while we're really excited about the 25,000 plus doors that we're in now and all of the new merchandising that's gone out. It's obviously very helpful, but, when we don't have our full suite of products out in the market, then obviously we're not fully exploiting that retail network and that really strong in store presence. So that's while that's something that's hurting us in 2024, that's something we believe is going to help us in 2025 when we get the full suite of our full suite of new products out including MAX 2 in 2025. So unfortunately, we're not realizing the full benefit of the 25,000 plus doors today, but we expect to realize the full benefit in 2025. So there's a number of positive factors that we believe are going to contribute to a stronger 2025, that 25,000 plus door count that will continue to grow.

Speaker 2

The launch of our new products to fill those doors including our new 360 Camera Max 2 and more. So quite a bit to look forward to, but yes, there's no denying that we've got a bit of a path between here and there.

Speaker 4

Got it. That's it for me. Thank you, Nick. Take your time.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Mark.

Operator

There are currently no questions registered. So as a reminder, it is star 1 to ask a question. There are no additional questions waiting at this time. I would like to pass the conference over to the management team for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. Well, thanks for joining me at the call today, everybody. I'd like to remind everyone that while we are facing some business challenges, we're actually quite excited about the future. The OpEx reductions that we've made and the OpEx target that we have in 2025 of approximately $250,000,000 is a sustainable strategic effort to operate GoPro in a much leaner, more efficient and more effective manner, that we think is not only going to help improve execution, and yield better financial results, but we're confident that it's going to enable us to continue to drive innovation, differentiation into our product roadmap, to allow us to participate in the growth that we're seeing in the digital imaging market. Our market opportunity is in what we consider alternative capture cameras.

Speaker 2

That is cameras that go beyond the capabilities of the phone, go beyond the capabilities of traditional cameras. And our innovations and product development is really focused at helping people capture document their lives, their experiences, either for personal enjoyment or for their careers, for professional commercial purposes, in ways that just simply would be convenient with a traditional phone or a camera. And these categories of cameras are growing. The proliferation of cameras be they as standalone cameras or cameras that are embedded into other devices or equipment or gear or vehicles is growing. And GoPro's tech stack expertise and brand are uniquely well positioned for us to develop as an enabler of these types of capture use cases.

Speaker 2

Historically, we've been known as the hero camera company. And, while that's been terrific for growing our business and our brand over time, it's a subset of what GoPro is capable of. It's a subset of what our product development and engineering teams are capable of. It's a subset of what our existing distribution is capable of getting in front of consumers. And ultimately, it's been a subset of the greater opportunity for our brand and business to exploit all of the incredible people, the incredible talent, the incredible technology that we've developed over the years, including as I mentioned, the incredible patent portfolio that we have, that we're now defending and we'll put to use going forward in new ways.

Speaker 2

So the opportunity ahead is very significant for us. We've moved through the challenges of 2024 and we're really looking forward to executing in 2025 as a leaner, meaner organization that's really focused on efficiency and execution, in the process of getting out exciting new products that we believe are going to help us grow our business. So, while these are challenging this is a challenging, immediate, moment in GoPro history, we're really looking forward to the changes that we've made in the business and putting those changes to use in a more efficient operating model in 2025. So with that, thank you everybody for joining today's call. We're looking forward to our next one with you at the beginning of next year.

Speaker 2

And until then, this is team GoPro signing off.

Operator

That concludes the GoPro Q3 2024 earnings call.

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