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The Insanity of Castlight Health's IPO

By Chris Hill – Mar 14, 2014 at 5:54PM

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The market has seen some wild IPOs during the past year, but this one may take the cake.

Castlight Health (CSLT), a company that offers health information online to help inform medical choices and reduce insurance costs, had its IPO today, and saw shares promptly skyrocket. Shares were initially priced at $16 per share, and were nearly at $40 per share by market close, giving the tiny company that brings in $13 million in revenue per year a market cap of $3 billion. Is this one clear sign that the IPO market has shot dangerously far off into bubble territory?

In this segment of Friday's Investor Beat, host Chris Hill and Motley Fool analyst Ron Gross take a look at this staggering IPO. Ron notes that this is the ninth IPO to double on its first day of trading during the past nine months, which he sees as bubble territory. He also says that this worrying situation can leave investors jumping into stocks with sky-high valuations, buying the momentum, but ultimately setting themselves up for a fall, because they bought in at the wrong prices.

Chris Hill has no position in any stocks mentioned. Ron Gross has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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