You don't hear a lot of investors talking about initial public offerings (IPOs) these days. Last year was rough for investors, and it was even harder for a potential Wall Street debutante to get a deal to go through. Less than a quarter of the IPOs that have managed to hit the market over the past year are trading above their initial prices.
Let's take a look at a pair of winning IPO stocks. Atour Lifestyle Holdings (ATAT 2.17%) and Mobileye Global (MBLY 0.07%) are some of the recent stock offerings that are not broken IPOs. Let's see why these two investments are standing out.
Atour Lifestyle: Up 147%
Timing is everything when it comes to IPOs. Nobody wanted a piece of Atour Lifestyle Holdings when it went public in early November. It only found buyers at the low end of its initial pricing range between $11 and $13, and it continued to be available in the pre-teens until the final trading day of that month.
Atour is the largest manager of upper midscale hotels in China. The Shanghai-based company watches over 834 hotels across 151 cities in the world's most populous nation with 96,969 rooms available. It's ramping up quickly with another 343 hotels under development. Most of its properties are traditional lodging properties, but it's been building out a collection of themed hotels that investors may want to keep an eye on here.
Image source: Getty Images.
It started five years ago when it partnered with the NetEase Cloud Music online streaming platform to launch a music-themed hotel. Rooms are decorated in tribute of different music genres. There are regular live performances. Guests can also borrow from the lobby's vinyl library.
You've seen themed hotels in Vegas and other touristy hotspots. There are even a couple of Hard Rock Hotels that may have served as the unofficial inspiration here. Atour didn't stop there. It has also opened basketball-themed hotels in China. The lobby is a basketball court. A museum is open around the clock with sports memorabilia. Atour has also opened hotels themed to retail, animation, and literature.
It's a deep dive into the lifestyles. The atrium in the literature hotel features a 31-meter-tall tower of books. Events are scheduled throughout the day to get folks with like-minded interests to bond. It's a robust ecosystem with unique retail opportunities and experiences that speak to their guests' passions. Average daily rates for the themed hotels are 15% higher than comparable Atour properties in the same destinations. It's just 14 themed properties now, but that number should continue to grow until it moves the needle.
Atour itself is refreshingly profitable, and it's early in the growth trajectory here. Analysts see revenue more than doubling and earnings per share more than quadrupling in two years. The stock is on a roll after a slow start despite being public for just a little more than two months.
I mentioned timing is everything, and the stock's surge after its initial meandering is also easy to explain. With China finally starting to ease COVID-19 lockdown restrictions investors are seeing Atour as an obvious reopening play. If China goes through the same "revenge travel" phase the U.S. did over the last two years -- and it could be even more pronounced given the country's prolonged travel restrictions -- Atour could see explosive growth in the coming year.
Mobileye Global: Up 62%
A more widely known freshman is Mobileye. The autonomous vehicle technology specialist was public before. It traded under the same ticker symbol until Intel snapped it up in a $15.3 billion deal six years ago. With self-driving cars an emerging industry, Intel figured it could cash in on the trend by spinning off Mobileye.
True to its name, Mobileye makes chips that help car cameras as well as other driver assistance systems for self-driving cars. It's a complete software platform for assisted and autonomous driving technologies, and it already has successful working relationships with many of the leading automakers.
Last year wasn't great for the auto industry, but revenue at Mobileye rose 27% through the first three quarters of 2022. Mobileye is also profitable. It's not growing as quickly as Atour, but the highway is paved for autonomous growth. Analysts see revenue gains slowing to 19% this year, but picking up speed again with 31% top-line growth in 2024.
The IPO market isn't dead. It just takes a little more time to find the names with a promising pulse.