Fitbit Most Popular App, Buy the Stock?

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There’s a sweet spot for consumer electronics. One day you’re the hottest kid on the block with the new Sony CD Walkman. The next day your nemesis gets an iPod and makes you look like a dinosaur. In the developing wearables market, smartwatches may not be taking off but the Fitbit sure is. 

Is that a bootleg Timex? No, it’s a Fitbit. This small device with its late 1990s black and white screen looks like Microsoft's MS-DOS on your wrist. It counts your steps like pedometers have done for years and my Samsung does without me asking. It measures your heart rate, like countless heart rate monitors have done for decades. It includes GPS to show how far you’ve ran, jogged, walked or stumbled. 

I don’t get it. But just by looking at me, you could probably guess I’m not a Fitbit guy. Maybe Fit bite, a wearable to count how many carne asada’s I throw back during Taco Tuesday, but a skinny wrist band to tell me how many steps I take back and forth between the fridge and the bathroom on a daily basis? Don’t judge me skinny wrist band with your smug little LED face. 

Don’t look now but the Fitbit app has become the number one free app in the Apple App Store on Christmas, implying a ton of device activations over the holiday. While the Fitbit app has been the most downloaded health and fitness iOS app every day in December, Christmas marked the first time it’s taken the number one overall position. 

Fitbit shares have turned around a bit too since bottoming out at a 52-week low of $26.46. Back-to-back earnings beats may have changed the mind of some analysts out there. Five analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the current year while four have followed suit for next year. The bullish attitude has pushed up the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year from 62 cents to 84 cents and increased next year’s numbers from 81 cents to 94 cents. It’s helped Fitbit move to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) in an industry that ranks in the Top 20% of our Zacks Industry Rank.