GoPro is getting into the drone business and now the stock is surging

nick woodman gopro

(REUTERS/Mike Segar)

GoPro shares are on a tear.

In early trading Thursday, the stock gained as much as 7%.

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman announced Wednesday at Re/code's Code Conference that the company was developing a six-camera virtual-reality recording system and a drone.

Woodman also said GoPro planned to create a quadcopter that would not start shipping until the first half of next year.

In an interview with CNBC's Josh Lipton, Woodman said:

We see similarities to the viral growth of quads, similarly to early days of GoPro. We recognize those same trends, and when we consider that a quadcopter is potentially the most versatile GoPro accessory, that means it's very core to our business and makes sense for us to get involved officially.

Lipton also noted that some analysts were bullish on this push from GoPro.

.@GoPro pushes into drones; analysts at Dougherty say could add $475M in sales for FY16. My interview w/ CEO Nick Woodman on @SquawkStreet

— Josh Lipton (@CNBCJosh) May 28, 2015

The stock is down 9% year-to-date but up a massive 83% over the past 12 months.

As the stock slid this year, analysts pointed to growing competition in the point-of-view camera space.

Here's a chart showing the pop in shares on Thursday:

Screen Shot 2015 05 28 at 9.42.12 AM

(Google Finance)

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