The IPO Buzz: Mixed Bag for Micro-Caps in Valentine’s Week

by Jan Paschal. Posted on February 19, 2023

The tape shows mixed results for last week’s micro-cap IPOs. One deal – The NFT Gaming Co. (NFTG) – popped up nearly 10 percent to open at $4.55 on Wednesday (Feb. 15, 2023), only to close at $4.05 – down 2.4 percent from its $4.15 IPO price. The other deal – Bullfrog AI Holdings (BFRG/ BFRGW) – opened at $5.30 – 18.5 percent below its $6.50 IPO price on Valentine’s Day (Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023) – and slid some more to end at $4.76, down 26.8 percent. Sadly, there was no Disney fairy-tale ending for this frog. He did not have the chance to kiss a princess at midnight and turn into a prince.

In contrast, both of last week’s small-cap SPAC IPOs booked solid gains:

Mars Acquisition Corp. (MARXU) – Gained 1.7 percent on its first day of trading and finished the week up 1.8 percent from its IPO price
Distoken Acquisition Corp. (DISTU) – Rose 1.9 percent on its first day of trading and ended the week up 1.9 percent from its IPO price

Their performance matched that of three other SPAC IPOs priced this year – Cetus Capital Acquisition (CETUU), Pono Capital Three Acquisition (PTHRU) and Bellevue Life Sciences Acquisition Corp. (BLACU). Each of these three SPAC IPOs finished their first day of trading up 2 percent – and ended their first week of trading up 2 percent. Israel Acquisitions Corp. (ISRLU) was the outlier, rising 1 percent from its IPO price at the opening trade and ending the week up 1 percent.

Bankers raised $135.4 million by pricing four deals last week: two SPAC IPOs (Mars and Distoken at $60 million each) and two micro-cap IPOs (NFT Gaming at $7 million and Bullfrog AI Holdings at $8.4 million). That traffic represented only half of last week’s IPO Calendar of micro-cap deals. The other four IPOs didn’t make it out the door: Two were postponed and two were delayed, pending NASDAQ approval.

Meanwhile, the flow of deals into the IPO pipeline picked up speed. Five small-cap companies filed to go public last week, while three companies set small-cap public offerings in connection with their plans to uplist their stock at a larger exchange.

Stay tuned.

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO Calendar and the individual IPO Profiles found on IPOScoop.com’s website.)

Note: Never trade on proposed symbols. They have been known to change and you might buy something on the OTC Bulletin Board.

To see what time the NASDAQ IPOs are expected to trade, please log in to: NASDAQTrader.com then scroll down to IPO Message.

Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums) is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.