Investors sent Blue Apron's (APRN) share value crashing yesterday evening and this morning after the company announced yesterday that it's offering at least 4 million shares of common stock. The stock is being sold at a price of $9.25 per share, with the company expecting to realize gross proceeds of $37 million before expenses such as commissions and underwriting discounts are deducted.
The offering could potentially end up running as high as 4.6 million shares of Class A common stock, since the underwriters have the option to buy another 600,000 shares. The underwriters will have a period of 30 days during which they can exercise that option.
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While Blue Apron's shares are currently trading at around $9 per share, the price is still far above the $2.10 they had plunged to before COVID-19 arrived. The pandemic electrified investor interest in food delivery services available through an online interface, which drove Blue Apron's share prices up more than 441% over their February low, reaching $11.38 before the current decline.
Blue Apron's second-quarter 2020 results revealed a hefty improvement in many of its metrics, including a $1.1 million profit compared to a $7.7 million loss in Q2 2019. During the Q2 earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Linda Kozlowski noted the company's "marketing efforts contributed to our ability to increase our customer account by approximately 20,000 customers quarter-over-quarter to 396,000."
If Blue Apron earmarks at least some of the stock offering proceeds for marketing spend to secure its gains moving forward, as some observers speculate, this might help offset temporary investor displeasure at the offering and pave the way to future growth.
