The IPO Buzz: Winding Down for the Holidays

No IPOs are scheduled for pricing this week  as bankers take a break for the holidays. This is a short work week. An abbreviated U.S. stock trading session will end at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 24th, for Christmas Eve. The U.S. stock market will be closed on Friday for Christmas Day.  To all of our IPOScoop readers and subscribers who celebrate Christmas: We wish you a very Merry Christmas indeed!

This morning, a modest SPAC – Ackrell SPAC Partners I (ACKIU proposed) – was priced – 10 million units at $10 each – and listed as expected to start trading on NASDAQ at around 1:30 p.m. EST. It’s possible, of course, that Wall Street might crank out a few more IPOs or SPAC deals this week or next. If that occurs and pricing details can be confirmed, IPOScoop will update the IPO Calendar.

The IPO assembly line is still rolling, meanwhile.  About 20 companies filed to go public on Friday alone. Many of those were special-purpose acquisition companies or SPACs, also known as blank-check companies.

Something POSH

Poshmark, Inc. (POSH proposed) may have made fashionistas’ hearts beat a little faster last week when the social platform for clothing resellers filed to go public on Thursday, Dec. 17th.  Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Barclays are the joint book-runners. The prospectus cites a placeholder amount of $100 million as the estimated volume. Poshmark’s revenue comes from a fee charged on each sale.  For an interesting read, check out this TechCrunch story on Poshmark’s IPO filing.

A young woman who wants an Anthropologie blue floral dress could get it for $55 on Poshmark.com instead of paying the $150 retail price. Or if she covets a certain style of Michael Kors wedge sandals, she might be able to buy them (gently worn) for under $40 on Poshmark instead of paying $350 for a new pair.

Poshmark is popular with Millennials (people born in 1980-1995) and Gen Z (people born in 1996-2010). The Redwood  City, California-based company says that younger generations are attracted to secondhand and resale as they look for ways to reduce consumption and support a more sustainable economy. The online U.S. resale market for apparel and footwear is estimated to have been $7 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow to an estimated $26 billion in 2023, the prospectus says.

MASS Appeal

908 Devices, Inc. (MASS) scored a moonshot last week. The company upsized its IPO – pricing it at $20, above its increased price range of $18 to $19, and selling more shares – 6.5 million, up from 6.25 million in the prospectus. The stock jumped 145 percent from its IPO price to close at $49 on Friday, its first day of trading, on NASDAQ. (A moonshot occurs when a company’s stock shoots up 100 percent – doubling in price – or more on its first day of trading.)

Based in Boston, 908 Devices makes handheld and desktop mass spectrometry devices used in forensics field work as well as in drug research and development.

BioAtla (BCAB) delivered an impressive gain, rising 72 percent from its IPO price of $18 to close at $31.02 on Wednesday, its first day of trading on NASDAQ. The cancer-focused biotech’s stock finished the week up 94.4 percent.

Final Week of 2020

The IPO Calendar looks light for the week of Dec. 28, when 2020 will take its final bow. One IPO service is showing two deals as possibilities for pricing during “the week of Dec. 28,” but those details could not be confirmed at press time.  As more SEC filings flow in over the transom, a handful of IPOs could land on the IPO Calendar and get done before New Year’s Eve.

Stay tuned.

Happy Holidays!

To all of our IPOScoop readers and subscribers:  We wish you Healthy and Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!  

(For more information about these companies, please check the IPO profiles on IPOScoop.com.)

(Never trade on proposed symbols. You might wind up owning something on the OTC Bulletin Board.)

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.