Apollo Post-IPO Watch: Analysts Get Aggressive After Quiet Period (APO)

Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) has been public for just over a month and its quiet period has ended for research analysts.  The private equity giant sold almost 30 million shares at $19.00 per share.  Despite a 2.3% gain today, this is still trading as a busted deal with shares around $18.40.  Since coming public, Apollo’s shares have traded in a range of $17.65 to $19.00.

Now that the quiet period is over, we have many new research calls on the private equity outfit.  These are not in any particular order, but the analyst calls are as follows:

• Started as Buy at BofA/ML with a $24 target;
• Started as Buy at Citigroup with $24 target;
• Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse with $23 target;
• Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank with $20 target;
• Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs with $24 target;
• Started as Overweight at J.P. Morgan with $24 target;
• Started as Buy at UBS with $21 target;
• Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo with a target of $19 or $20.

So, the good news is that most of the pack is not just higher than today’s prices.  The consensus target is north of the IPO price.  That is at least seven firms endorsing the private equity outfit.  We’ll give it a consensus price target north of $22.00 per share.

JON C. OGG