CG Oncology (CGON) – the first biotech IPO of the year – scored a moonshot today in its NASDAQ debut. The bladder cancer biotech doubled its $19.00 IPO price – rising to $38.00 shortly after 3 p.m. EST today (Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024). A moonshot occurs when a company doubles its IPO stock price – or more – for a gain of 100 percent or more – in its first day of trading.
Shares of CG Oncology closed today at $37.17 – up $18.17 from its $19.00 IPO price – for a first-day gain of 95.63 percent on volume of 8.81 million shares.
The stock jumped $10.00 to open at $29.00 at 1:36 p.m. EST today. Initial volume was 1.26 million shares.
That head-turning performance reflected the hot buzz around this IPO. CG Oncology upsized its IPO twice this week as it counted down the hours to going public. At pricing, CG Oncology’s IPO was increased to 20.0 million shares – up from 17.0 million shares in its upward revision on Tuesday – and priced the deal at $19.00 – $1.00 above the top of its $16.00-to-$18.00 range – on Wednesday night, Jan. 24, 2024. The initial terms had called for 11.8 million shares.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Cantor were the joint book-runners. LifeSci Capital was the co-manager.
As it turned out, CG Oncology’s IPO was in the right place at the right time.
“The Street has been looking for a hot sector. Oncology is still a very hot place to be,” a veteran IPO pro says.
The Irvine, California-based biotech, founded in 2010, is developing a genetically engineered virus to treat patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) that is resistant to the standard therapy, the prospectus says.
CG Oncology priced its IPO on Wednesday night (Jan. 24, 2024) – two nights after the Dow hit 38,000 for the first time – and as the S&P 500 rose to a series of record highs. The NASDAQ’s rally – driven by Netflix earnings – also blew some warm trade winds in this cancer biotech IPO’s direction.
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