What: Shares of Rapid7 (RPD 9.56%) skyrocketed nearly 57% following the cybersecurity specialist's initial public offering.
So what: Regulatory filings last week revealed Rapid7 intended to offer 6.45 million shares of its common stock at a price between $13.00 and $15.00 per share. But yesterday, Rapid7 announced IPO pricing would be above its initial expected range at $16 per share. Rapid7 also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 967,500 shares for possible over-allotments
When Rapid7 began trading today, however, the stock quickly jumped to its current levels above $25 per share as investors remained excited about its fast-growing business. According to Rapid7's S-1 filing with the SEC, it already counts 3,900 customers in more than 90 countries, including 30% of the Fortune 1000. Rapid 7 also achieved 35% compound annual revenue growth from 2011 through 2014, while 61% of its $76.9 million in total 2014 sales came from enterprise customers.
Now what: At the same time, note Rapid7 is not currently profitable, and incurred a net loss of $32.6 million last year. To be fair, it's not uncommon to see tech companies temporarily shunning bottom-line profits as they invest for top-line growth. And that's especially so in the burgeoning cybersecurity industry, as companies work to secure as large a slice of the market as possible in these early stages.
For now, however, I don't mind watching Rapid7 from the sidelines until the dust settles around its IPO. That may mean missing out on some short-term gains if the market decides it wants to continue bidding up the Rapid7 stock. But for me, until Rapid7 gets at least one quarter under its belt as a publicly traded company, the risk of a sudden pullback amid this early volatility is too great for my investing taste.
