Fitbit On The Rise As Citron Comes Out Positive

Shares of Fitbit Inc FIT hit a day's high of $14.52 after short-seller Andrew Left's positive comments on the company.

"Tough to short here because wearables are for real with a big total addressable market. It is a compelling product," Citron Research's Andrew Left said, according to a CNBC Pro report.

Wearbles

The wearables market is turning hot as more and more consumers becoming fitness conscious and buying fitness tracking devices. A recent data from IDC shows that vendors shipped a total of 27.4 million wearable devices during the holiday quarter, besting last year's levels by 126.9 percent. For the full year, vendors shipped a total of 78.1 million units, up 171.6 percent over 2014. The market is expected to grow at 28 percent annual rate for the five years ending in 2019.

In this growing market, Fitbit remains market leader and outpaced rivals Apple Inc. AAPL. According to IDC, Apple Watch captured 15 percent market share in the fourth quarter, next only to Fitbit, which holds a market share of 29.5 percent. Fitbit sold 8.1 million fitness trackers in the fourth quarter, an impressive growth of 72 percent from the third quarter. Apple sold 4.1 million devices in the same period.

Recent Analyst

Dougherty's Charles Anderson, who reiterated a Neutral rating on Fitbit, recently said "we can say with confidence that the Fitbit Blaze looks to be exceeding expectations out of the gate."

Anderson also noted that Fitbit Blaze had received a "staggeringly" high number of positive reviews compared to the company's earlier releases, with 231 "verified" reviews on Amazon. Of these, 83 percent had rated Blaze with 4 or 5 stars.

Therefore, the analyst believes that there is potential for the stock to outperform in the near term. However, Anderson would prefer to get more constructive is there was evidence of these trends continuing and the launch of Fitbit Alta was received positively.

Shares of Fitbit were up 5 percent at $14.23. They were down 52 percent this year.