Nine IPOs were priced last week, raising almost $3.4 billion in proceeds. You have to reach back to the week of Dec. 6, 2010, to find more deals getting priced – with 10 IPOs that raised $1.5 billion, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s filings.
By Friday’s close, the nifty nine saw seven closing above their initial offering prices, one below and one unchanged. They scored an average gain of nearly 23 percent.
First, let’s look at the billion-dollar babies:
- LinnCo (LNCO) is a tracking company formed to invest in Linn Energy (LINE). The company priced its IPO of 30.3 million shares at $36.50 each on Thursday evening to raise $1.1 billion. The IPO closed on Friday at $38.26 – UP 4.82 percent from its initial offering price, and
- Realogy Holdings (RLGY) is a franchisor of real estate brokerages. The company priced its IPO of 40 million shares at $27 each on Wednesday evening to raise $1.08 billion. The IPO closed on Friday at $33.60 – UP 24.4 percent from its offering price.
The big winners were from technology:
- Shutterstock (SSTK) offers a library of royalty-free stock photos, vectors and illustrations, which are available by subscription. The company priced its IPO of 4.5 million shares at $17 each on Wednesday evening – above its original filing range of $13 to $15 per share. The IPO closed on Friday at $22 – UP 29.4 percent from its offering price.
- Workday (WDAY) provides enterprise cloud-based applications to manage people and payrolls. The company priced its IPO of 22.8 million shares at $28 each on Thursday evening. The deal was priced above its latest price range of $24 to $26, up from its original filing range of $21 to $24 per share. The IPO closed Friday at $48.69 – UP 73.9 percent from its offering price.
Working It
The Workday IPO was a throwback to the Internet bubble. The company comes from an exotic industry. And its IPO scored big during its opening day. In 1999, the calendar priced 543 IPOs, and they had an average opening-day gain of 77 percent.
But unlike many of those IPOs from yesteryear, Workday has something going for it.
Consider this: For the six months ended July 31, 2012, Workday reported a loss of $1.40 per share on revenues of $119.5 million, compared with a loss of $1.27 per share on revenues of $54.8 million for the same period a year ago.
And Thomson One Analytics had something to say. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2012, Workday reported a loss of $2.71 per share on revenues of $134 million. For the year ending Jan. 31, 2013, Thomson One estimated Workday will have a loss of $2.75 per share on revenues of $292 million. For the year ending 2014, Thomson One estimated Workday will have a loss of 76 cents on revenues of $511 million.
The dates to remember are:
- Nov, 5, 2012, when Workday emerges from its 25-day quiet period, and its bankers will start research initiations.
- April 10, 2013, when Workday’s 180-day lockup period expires, assuming the insiders haven’t sold stock before then.
This brings us back to the present.
In contrast to last week’s bustling calendar, this week’s agenda is a blank slate.
Stay tuned.
Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.