Fitbit is already not having a good week.
After unveiling a new smartwatch at CES last week, the stock tanked 18% over the course of the day. But things have only gotten worse for the fitness tracking device-focused company, with its shares dropping another 10% in trading today. The stock fell as much as 13% during the day, bringing it to an all-time low.
As we noted last week, this seems to be a continued lack of confidence in the company as it looks to enter the smartwatch market. This is a hyper-competitive space on both the low-end, with the Pebble smartwatches, and the high-end with the Apple Watch and other watches powered by Android. Fitbit, previously primarily focused on less-expensive and popular fitness trackers, is now diverging from its core strategy as it enters the smartwatch market.
All this isn’t good news for the company. Having a well-performing stock isn’t just important for pleasing investors — it is also a key element of attracting talent, as the company can entice in potential recruits with the allure of well-performing shares in addition to a strong salary.
[graphiq id=”lYlMdh7OYhn” title=”Fitbit Inc. (FIT) Stock Price – Current Day” width=”600″ height=”575″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/lYlMdh7OYhn” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/17807102/Fitbit-Inc-in-San-Francisco-CA” link_text=”Fitbit Inc. (FIT) Stock Price – Current Day | FindTheCompany”]
Over just the past few days, shares of Fitbit have dropped more than 35%.
This new drop today brings Fitbit, formerly one of the most-successful IPOs of 2015, to another all-time low. The stock had a bit of a rocky year, ending around the price of its first year of trading, but was still up considerably from its IPO price of $20 by the end of the year. Now the company is trading below that, hitting $18.69 in regular trading on Monday.
[graphiq id=”iVnUbNbrKsJ” title=”GoPro Inc. (GPRO) Stock Price – 2 Years” width=”600″ height=”487″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/iVnUbNbrKsJ” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/12123149/GoPro-Inc-in-San-Mateo-CA” link_text=”GoPro Inc. (GPRO) Stock Price – 2 Years | FindTheCompany”]
Etsy is also having a pretty bad day, hitting an all-time low of its own.
[graphiq id=”kWYqdEqII85″ title=”Etsy Inc. (ETSY) Stock Price – Current Day” width=”600″ height=”575″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/kWYqdEqII85″ link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/16266642/Etsy-Inc-in-Brooklyn-NY” link_text=”Etsy Inc. (ETSY) Stock Price – Current Day | FindTheCompany”]
One other thing worth noting: Twitter. It’s not down particularly sharply today, but the company is still skirting all-time lows. Since the company’s last earnings report, Twitter has seen a slow march south.
[graphiq id=”3nVsK9aIHfT” title=”Twitter Inc. (TWTR) Stock Price – 2 Years” width=”600″ height=”487″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/3nVsK9aIHfT” link=”http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/445483/Twitter-Inc-in-San-Francisco-CA” link_text=”Twitter Inc. (TWTR) Stock Price – 2 Years | FindTheCompany”]
But some of the larger technology companies are having OK days thus far, so it doesn’t seem to be an issue with technology across the board. If anything, these companies are more recently public, meaning they could be a little more volatile as they figure out their respective game plans — especially when it comes to hard, concrete product pipelines.
With all of these companies shares continuing to fall, that brings up another question — will they become acquisition targets? It’s hard to tell right now, but if the trend continues, a company like Fitbit might turn out to look like a bargain to larger companies looking to snap up a big hardware platform play.
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