Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of HubSpot (HUBS 0.28%) rose as much as 12% on Wednesday after it announced the pricing of its follow-on public share offering. HubSpot, which provides a cloud-based sales and marketing software platform, sold 4.11 million shares at $37 per share -- less than a 1% discount to Tuesday's closing price. The underwriters have a "green shoe" option to purchase an additional 617 million shares.
So what: I suspect today's stock price "pop" may be the result of short-sellers buying back the stock in response to a successful follow-on share sale. Indeed, for a "long" investor, this event provides little to no information regarding the likelihood the company will be successful in establishing a defensible franchise and generating a long-term stream of cash flows on behalf of its shareholders.
Now what: HubSpot shares have handily beaten the market since they began trading last October:
That momentum may attract investors' interest – success breeds success in the stock market, as it were. However, I would advise investors to keep in mind that HubSpot is a highly speculative issue. The company has yet to become profitable, with five consecutive years of losses through 2014, and analysts expect at least another year of losses.
