The IPO Buzz: Dance of the Unicorns

A unicorn pranced out on the IPO stage last week, kicked up its heels and scored an opening-day gain of 32.3 percent. In November, another unicorn did the same – with an opening-day gain of 45.2 percent. And as the year began, another unicorn started the 2015 parade with an opening-day pop of 65.9 percent.

As most know, in the Land of IPOs, unicorns are privately owned companies with a valuation of $1 billion and higher. This brings us to the question: “Just how many unicorns are in this herd?”

Half a Trillion

CB Insights, also known as cbinsights.com, a New York City-based provider of data and analysis on venture capital, private equity, angel investment, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and emerging high-growth industries, reports that there are 145 unicorns worldwide with a cumulated valuation of $506 billion. Translation: That’s a little more than half a trillion dollars.

In view of this, the IPO market’s future looks interesting indeed when you consider that 2015’s IPO traffic – for the year to date -totals 174 deals that raised $32.6 billion.

Unicorns Big and Small

The biggest unicorn on cbinsights.com’s list is Uber, a San Francisco-based car service provider. Its latest valuation was $51 billion.

And on the “low” side of the unicorn valuations, 44 companies had a valuation of $1 billion each.

The 145 unicorns on cbinsights.coms list hailed from 15 countries with 95 coming from the USA.

In addition, there were 19 industrial sectors represented among the 145 unicorns. The eCommerce/Marketplace sector accounted for the most unicorns with 31 companies.

Airbnb was the largest in the eCommerce sector with a valuation of $25.5 billion. Based in San Francisco, Airbnb is a website for people to rent out their apartments or homes. The company has over 800,000 listings in 33,000 cities and 192 countries.

Daring Leaps and a Line Dance

Let’s back up and review the dance of this year’s unicorns.

On Dec. 9, 2015, Atlassian (TEAM), the Australian software company, priced its IPO of 22 million shares at $21 each. The stock closed its opening day at $27.78, UP 32.9 percent from its IPO price. At the time of its pricing, the company had a valuation of $4.4 billion.

On Nov. 18, Square (SQ), the San Francisco-based provider of a point-of-sale system that lets anyone with a mobile device accept payment via a credit card or a debit card and takes care of digital receipts, inventory, and sales reports, priced its IPO of 27 million shares at $9 each. The stock closed its opening day at $13.07, UP 42.2 percent from its IPO price. At the time of its pricing, Square had a valuation of $2.95 billion. It closed on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, at $11.95, UP 32.6 percent from its IPO price.

Note: The consensus recommendation of about 10 analysts rates Square a “Buy” with a price target of $13.50 per share, according to reliable sources.

On Oct. 6, Pure Storage (PSTG), the Mountain View, California-based provider of a data storage platform, priced its IPO of 25 million shares at $17 each. The IPO closed its opening day at $16.01, DOWN 5.82 percent from its IPO price. At the time of its pricing, Pure Storage had a valuation of $3.1 billion. It closed on Friday, Dec. 11, at $17.65, UP 3.82 percent from its IPO price.

Note: The consensus recommendation of about 10 analysts rates Pure Storage a “Buy” with a price target of $18 per share, according to reliable sources.

On Jan. 22, Box (BOX), the Los Altos, California-based provider of a cloud-based enterprise content collaboration platform that lets organizations of various sizes access, store, share and manage their content, priced its IPO of 12.5 million shares at $14 each. The stock closed its opening day at $23.32, UP 65.9 percent from its IPO price. At the time of its pricing, Box had a valuation of $1.4 billion. It closed on Friday, Dec. 11, at $13.13, DOWN 6.21 percent from its IPO price.

Note: The consensus recommendation of about 10 analysts rates Box a “Buy” with a price target of $18 per share, according to reliable sources.

IPO Swan Song of 2015

Looking into this week: 2015’s final IPO calendar lists two deals. One is a Chinese finance company and the other is a “blank check” offering. They are expected to raise $145 million.

Yirendai Ltd. (YRD – proposed) is a Beijing-based online consumer finance marketplace provider that connects investors and individual borrowers and enables them to execute loan transactions. Bankers plan to price 7.5 million American Depository Shares at $9 to $11 each on Thursday evening, Dec. 17, to trade on the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning.

(For more information, please click here: Yirendai Ltd.)

Holiday Lights

IPOScoop.com will not be publishing on Dec. 21, but we will be back for 2015’s final week on Dec. 28, 2015.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays to all!

Stay tuned.

 

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