Don't you dare start shoveling dirt on the market's newborns.
Last week I argued that investors were ignoring many of the consumer-facing companies that had gone public earlier this year. Some of the prior week's biggest losers were, in fact, members of the 2011 IPO class.
IPOs are dead, dude? Well, not so fast.
There are two reasons to believe that reports of rookies hitting the wall this time of year are overblown.
For starters, 11 companies are set to go public this week. Everyone's talking about Zynga, but there's also corporate social networking software provider Jive, fashion designer Michael Kors, and several energy companies hoping to join the social gaming leader on the exchange dance floor this week.
If the 11 companies are able to pull off their debuts it would be the largest number of IPOs to hit the market during a single week since 2007.
The other reason to get excited about IPOs is that some of the stocks that tanked two weeks ago -- during the market's strongest weekly gain in nearly three years -- bounced back last week.
Let's go over the six recent IPOs that had posted negative returns during the prior week's 7% spurt.
| 12/9/11 | Weekly Loss | |
|---|---|---|
| Francesca's Holdings (Nasdaq: FRAN) | $19.70 | 23% |
| Teavana (NYSE: TEA) | $16.99 | 2% |
| Zipcar (Nasdaq: ZIP) | $14.28 | (6%) |
| Skullcandy (Nasdaq: SKUL) | $13.46 | (3%) |
| Home Away (Nasdaq: AWAY) | $25.11 | (3%) |
| Zillow (Nasdaq: Z) | $24.77 | 13% |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
Francesca's Holdings surged after the boutique operator posted better than expected quarterly results. Zillow was the beneficiary of a Canaccord Genuity analyst initiating coverage with a buy rating, playing up Zillow's chances as an acquisition target.
There wasn't a lot of traction with the other four names. Tea retailer Teavana barely beat the market's return last week, while car-sharing leader Zipcar, edgy headphone maker Skullcandy, and vacation marketplace HomeAway continued their slides.
However, Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN), which soared and crashed after going public last month, has now come through with two consecutive weeks of double-digit percentage gains. Sentiment may be turning, and how well Zynga and Jive hold up will go a long way to checking the IPO market's pulse.
Add some of these rookies to MyWatchlist to track their performance.
- Add Zipcar to My Watchlist.
- Add Zillow to My Watchlist.
- Add Teavana Holdings to My Watchlist.
- Add Skullcandy to My Watchlist.
- Add Groupon to My Watchlist.
- Add Francesca's Holdings to My Watchlist.
- Add HomeAway to My Watchlist.
