GoPro crashes below its IPO price

GoPro shares fell below their initial public offering price on Thursday.

The stock sank by as much as 6% to around $23.44 a share, under the $24 price tag that shares had when they went public last June.

And so, investors who bought shares early, at the IPO price, are right where they were on paper, and possibly losing money.

Year-to-date, the stock has dropped 63%. The stock is among the most heavily shorted on Wall Street, with about 32% of the float shorted as at Thursday.

The point-of-view camera maker's third-quarter earnings brought up some of the issues that investors have grappled with of late. While announcing earnings that came in below expectations because the quarter was more difficult than anticipated, GoPro lowered its guidance for fourth-quarter earnings.

Analysts have said the company's cameras and apps cannot easily be replaced by smartphones and their own apps.

Morgan Stanley analysts thought GoPro's small Hero 4 Session was a downer for consumers, as the company slashed the price by $100 shortly after release due to "disappointing demand".

Pacific Crest's Brad Erickson said after the Q3 earnings that it looked like the action-camera market in the US was "quickly saturating".

Here's a chart showing the stock's lifetime:

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