Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans Parent Quietly Enters the Market

By Chris Lange Published Aug 6, 11:45AM EDT

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Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans Parent Quietly Enters the Market — © Thinkstock

Rocket Companies Inc. (NYSE: RKT) quietly entered the market on Thursday in its initial public offering. While the company priced its 100 million shares at $18 apiece, the stock actually entered the market slightly below the pricing. The company originally expected to price its shares in the range of $20 to $22.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, RBC, Allen, BofA Securities, Barclays, Citigroup, UBS, CastleOak Securities, Drexel Hamilton, Fifth Third, Huntington Capital Markets, Loop Capital Markets, Mischler Financial Group, Nomura, Ramirez, Siebert Williams Shank and Zelman Partners.

The flagship business, Rocket Mortgage, has provided more than $1 trillion in home loans since its inception, while growing its market share from 1.3% in 2009 to 9.2% in the first quarter of 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 19%. It also has expanded into complementary industries, such as real estate services, personal lending and auto sales. The company also operates Quicken Loans.

Rocket Homes, the firm’s proprietary home search platform and real estate agent referral network, helps match Rocket Mortgage clients with highly rated agents, and the coordinated home buying experience improves the certainty of closing.

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In 2019, Rocket Homes participated in more than 30,000 real estate transactions. Rocket Loans, the prime personal loan business, underwrote approximately 25,000 closed loans in the same time (a year-over-year increase of over 30%). Rocket Auto, the auto sales business that was previously part of Rock Connections, facilitated nearly 20,000 used car sales in 2019, its second full year of operation.

The company intends to use the entire aggregate amount of the net proceeds to acquire a number of holding units and Class D common stock from RHI. Note that the company said that it does not intend to acquire any of these securities from Dan Gilbert, its founder and board chair.

Shares traded up over 2% at $18.47, in a range of $17.50 to $18.91 on the day thus far. Over 25 million shares had moved as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.