GoPro Spikes 11% as Lumentum Eases and Coherent Holds Flat: Is This a Merger Trade or a Meme Trade?

David Moadel

Thu, September 10, 2026 at 6:42 PM GMT+3 6 min read

Quick Read

GoPro has rallied 131% in one month despite going-concern doubts, with its Starman merger paying shareholders $1.14 cash plus a 10% stub in the combined company.
Coherent and Lumentum, the optical peers GoPro is often compared to, sit flat or lower today despite posting 34% and 109% revenue growth respectively, disconnecting GoPro from any sector catalyst.
A put-call ratio of 0.17 and heavy speculative call volume at the $1.50 and $2 strikes signal retail momentum, not deal arbitrage, driving today's spike.
Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Coherent didn't make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat COHR. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.

Shares of GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO) are up 11% to $1.57 in late-morning trading Thursday, extending a rerating that has lifted the action camera maker 124% over the past month. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.43% on the session. Also, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) is off 2%, so today's green tape is essentially confined to GoPro.

janitors / Flickr

This move sits on top of a merger backdrop that has been on the wires since September 1. GoPro agreed in late August to combine with Starman Optical, a privately held U.S. maker of optical transceivers, with GoPro shareholders receiving $1.14 per share in cash and retaining 10% of the combined company's outstanding shares. Content creator Markiplier separately disclosed a stake in late August that made him GoPro's largest individual shareholder, which drew retail flow into what had been a straightforward strategic transaction.

That setup was severe. GoPro's August 10 quarterly release disclosed substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, with Q2 2026 revenue of $104.93 million, down 31.3% year over year, and cash drained to $27.27 million. A board-authorized strategic review had been underway all summer, and Starman Optical is the outcome.

Free Report, Just Released

Why Didn't COHR Make The Top 10 List?

24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now.

And COHR didn't make the cut!

The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today.

Enter Your Email and See the Ten →

No Fresh Catalyst Explains the Move

Nothing new has crossed the wire this morning. The deal announcement is nearly two weeks old, and the last GoPro 8-K on file is dated August 10. No operating update, no revised terms, and no scheduled meeting has landed today to explain a session move of this size.

Options positioning fits the picture. The full-chain put-call ratio for GPRO sits at 0.17, and the busiest short-dated contracts by volume relative to existing open interest are September 18 calls at the $1.50 and $2 strikes. That mix leans speculative rather than deal-arbitrage.

What GoPro stock does have is a sub-$2 quote where a small burst of retail buying can dominate a full session. Twenty cents translates to a double-digit percentage, and the merger structure hands existing holders a cash payment plus a small stub of a private company with no public operating history. A bid on the stub is a bid on faith.

AI-Optical Peers Aren't Leading

Coherent (NYSE:COHR) stock is up 0.4% to $304.76, essentially unchanged on a session when the broader semiconductor complex is under pressure. Meanwhile, Lumentum Holdings (NASDAQ:LITE) stock is down 2% to $969.04, giving back a slice of the run that carried into its August fiscal fourth quarter release. These are the two listed names GoPro's merger is meant to place it alongside.

The fundamental backdrop at those two is very different. Coherent posted fiscal Q4 2026 revenue of $2.05 billion, up 34% year over year, with data center and communications making up 79% of total revenue. That is the AI-optical bull case in a single line, and it's the same buildout we mapped through the power, cooling, and networking suppliers in a free AI infrastructure report here.

Lumentum's fiscal Q4 2026 revenue was $1.01 billion, up 109.3% year over year, on non-GAAP EPS of $3.23. Guidance for the September quarter calls for revenue between $1.225 billion and $1.275 billion. Neither business is trading like a proxy for GoPro.

Analyst desks continue to model AI-driven optical connectivity as a multi-year buildout. Coherent CEO Jim Anderson stated on the August call that the company sees "no signs of attenuation in customer demand," and Lumentum management said the business reached its target operating model more than a quarter ahead of schedule. Those are the reasons the two stocks have run, and none of it explains GoPro today.

What to Watch

The action today is answering the question in the headline. A 14% session for GoPro on a day when Coherent sits flat, Lumentum is lower, and the SOXX semiconductor ETF is off carries the signature of an idiosyncratic move. It looks like a low-priced, high-beta stock carrying a merger overhang, a celebrity shareholder, and a retail bid.

The Starman deal is expected to close by year-end, subject to regulatory and stockholder approval. Investors can watch for whether the premium to the $1.14 cash consideration compresses as the closing window narrows, or whether the equity stub of the combined private-company entity keeps drawing bids on momentum alone, according to GoPro. Position sizing on their exposure should reflect a stock that can move both ways in double digits within a single session.

Got $1,000? Before You Buy COHR, Read This

If you have cash sitting in your account right now, give this two minutes. After more than two decades of helping investors beat the market, our top analysts at 24/7 Wall St. put together a definitive report on the Top 10 Stocks To Buy Today. And COHR wasn't one of them.

They combed the entire market. It's not 10 ideas, not 10 stocks everyone is talking about, it's what their research points to as the 10 best stocks to buy right now, and it's free. Read more here and see which stocks made the list -->>

Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.