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Fitbit ‘s ( FIT ) fourth-quarter earnings report on Monday could be an opportunity for the maker of wearable fitness devices to get investors interested in its story again. Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy said Fitbit’s Q4 report is “likely a catalyst” for its shares. She reiterated her overweight rating on the stock but slashed her price target to 24 from 60 on reset expectations for the San Francisco-based company. Fitbit went public on June 18 at 20 and climbed as high as 51.90 on Aug. 5. The stock cratered after a disappointing showing at the CES consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas in early January. On Friday, Fitbit stock fell 2.5% to 15.60 after rival Garmin ( GRMN ) announced two new fitness wearables that will ship in the second quarter. Garmin introduced the Vivofit 3 daily activity tracker and Vivoactive HR smartwatch. The Vivofit 3 starts at $99.99 and features one-year battery life and automatic activity detection. The Vivoactive HR is a GPS smartwatch with wrist-based heart-rate tracking and costs $249.99. “While Fitbit has clearly been a very challenged stock year-to-date, we remain overweight on the stock into the Q4 print,” Murphy said in a report. “As we are now past the share lockup period, investors should begin looking at fundamentals again.” Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Fitbit to earn 25 cents a share excluding items on sales of $648 million in the December quarter. Sales in the year-earlier period were $370 million. For the March quarter, Wall Street is modeling for Fitbit to earn 23 cents a share on sales of $485 million. In Q1 2015, Fitbit reported sales of $337 million. “We view fiscal 2016 favorably, given already announced new product launches (with more to come), the opportunity on the corporate wellness side, and an attractive multiple entry point into shares,” Murphy said. Fitbit’s newest products, the Blaze smart fitness watch and Alta fitness wristband, are set to go on sale in March. Fitbit faces a host of competitors in addition to Garmin. They include Apple ( AAPL ), Fossil ( FOSL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Under Armour ( UA ). On Wednesday, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brad Erickson reiterated his overweight rating on Fitbit but cut his price target to 31 from 47. “Demand appears steady after the holiday, but days of inventory are higher,” Erickson said. “Our upside bias to numbers remains and valuation is compelling, but we are tempering our expectations for multiple expansion, given inevitably slowing growth in 2016, even as corporate wellness remains a free call option in the name.” RELATED: Fitbit 2016 Outlook An Exercise In Worry For Investors? Fitbit Gets Fashionable With Alta Fitness Wristband . Scalper1 News
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