7 Hot IPOs (PRI)

7 Hot IPOs

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

After a year of rallying equity prices, the pipeline of new offerings is finally starting to gush.

More than a dozen companies have gone public on stateside exchanges over the past month. Whole quarters passed during the recessionary lull without this much activity. However, the biggest takeaway for investors -- and the most encouraging sign for companies waiting for their chance at bat -- is that most of the IPOs are going public successfully.

Many of the stocks that have debuted in recent weeks now trade higher than their offer prices. This makes it easier for underwriters to move future offerings, easing initial shareholders' fears that they'll be left holding the bag on post-IPO stinkers.

Let's review some of the biggest winners among the past month's market debutantes:

Stock	Offer	4/7/10	Gain
China Lodging (Nasdaq: HTHT )	$12.25	$16.75	37%
Financial Engines (Nasdaq: FNGN )	$12.00	$16.40	37%
Primerica (NYSE: PRI )	$15.00	$20.01	33%
Meru Networks (Nasdaq: MERU )	$15.00	$18.87	26%
MaxLinear (NYSE: MXL )	$14.00	$17.18	23%
Calix (NYSE: CALX )	$13.00	$14.03	8%
AVEO Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AVEO )	$9.00	$9.39	4%

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

The overall health of the recent IPO slate is no less encouraging than the diversity of its companies and their industries. Primerica is a financial services giant. China Lodging obviously deals in Chinese hospitality. Financial Engines is a retirement plan advisor and consultant. Meru specializes in wireless LAN networks.

As long as IPOs continue to perform reasonably well out of the gate -- and the general market holds up its end of the bargain -- the flow of new names for investors to choose from should continue to move along nicely.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

What private company would you like to see go public in 2010? Share your answer in the comment box below.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of new stocks, and has even recommended several fresh IPOs to Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter readers in the past. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.