The Lyft IPO was a dud, but these six freshly public stocks have found huge success in their early days on Wall Street
By now, it’s fairly common knowledge among financial market observers that the 2019 IPO stocks will be big, headlined by a slew of tech unicorns that are finally ready to hit the public markets. Names in this group include Uber, which will likely debut at a $100 billion-plus valuation, and Airbnb, which will likely command a $30 billion-plus valuation. There’s also Palantir with a rumored $30 billion-plus valuation, Slack with a $10 billion-plus valuation, and WeWork with a potential $40 billion-plus valuation.
But, the first big player in this group to IPO in 2019 was Lyft (NYSE:LYFT), and the results were far from spectacular. Lyft popped on its first day of trading, but it has been nothing but down and out since then. As of this writing, LYFT stock actually trades more than 15% below its IPO price.
The ostensible failure of the Lyft IPO has some fearful about upcoming IPOs. But, the failure of the Lyft IPO is getting too much press, and investors shouldn’t read much into it. While the Lyft IPO did ostensibly fail, there have been a ton of other IPO stocks in late 2018 and early 2019 which have been huge successes, and which imply that future IPOs in 2019 will do just fine.
Which IPO stocks fall into this category of big winners so far on Wall Street? Let’s take a deeper look at 6 red hot IPO stocks that all investors should be watching.
Zoom (ZM)
Gain From IPO Price: 100%
At the top of this list is a freshly public tech company which Wall Street has fallen in love with in just a few days.
Zoom (NYSE:ZM) is a video conferencing company which priced its IPO at $36 per share, opened up 80% above that IPO price, and has continued to soar ever since en route to a 100%-plus gain from that $36 IPO price. Why the huge demand for Zoom stock? The hyper-growth tech company checks off every box growth investors are looking for. It’s growing revenues at 100%-plus rate, with a small revenue base in a secular growth and very large video conferencing market. Gross margins are sky high around 80%, while opex rates are surprisingly low for a small company, and Zoom is actually profitable already.
All in all, you have a hyper-growth video conferencing company that’s already profitable. That has investors salivating.
But, the valuation on ZM stock is pretty rich here and now, and the stock has come very far, very fast. As such, caution is warranted here, especially considering that the video conferencing market isn’t light on competitors.
Red Hot IPO Stocks: Pinterest (PINS)
Gain From IPO Price: 40%
Second up is a social media company with a lot reach and a ton of potential to monetize that wide reach.
Unlike digital ad IPO stocks before it, the Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) IPO has been a huge success thus far. After pricing the IPO at $19 per share, PINS stock has rallied in a big way ever since, and is now up 40% from that IPO price. The rationale behind the rally is simple. This is a company which has a ton of users (265 million monthly active users), and is monetizing those users at a low rate (ARPU of just over a $1 last quarter), so the runway for robust revenue growth through ARPU expansion is promising. Plus, margins are healthy, the international user base is growing rapidly and the valuation is reasonable.
All together, then, PINS stock has been a big winner because the fundamentals are healthy, the upside potential is good, and the valuation is cheap. So long as those three things remain true, PINS stock will stay in its IPO honeymoon phase.
Red Hot IPO Stocks: YETI (YETI)
Gain From IPO Price: 100%
Third we have an outdoors consumer product company that didn’t have a huge IPO pop, but has been a steady winner in its short life as public company.
Meet YETI (NYSE:YETI). YETI is an outdoors consumer products brand that specializes in coolers and drinkware. YETI went public at $18 per share in late 2018 without much fanfare. The stock actually traded down on its first day on Wall Street. But, YETI stock has doubled ever since as the company has reported back-to-back strong earnings reports which ultimately underscore that this company has healthy growth drivers, in a healthy market, with a healthy margin profile.
In other words, YETI is a healthy company. Under $20, YETI stock wasn’t priced for healthy. That’s why the stock rallied. Above $30, the IPO stock is priced for healthy. But, not entirely. As such, so long as the numbers remain good (which they should for the foreseeable future), then YETI stock should remain on an uptrend until valuation becomes an issue. That won’t happen until around $40.
