It has become quite normal for companies to have names that are less than traditional. After all, many names cannot even be used any longer because big companies own them. What about Duck Creek as a name? Duck Creek Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: DCT) had a recent initial public offering, and despite its name not offering much insight into its line of business, its shares have soared since coming public.
Duck Creek offers a platform for the property and casualty insurance industry. It offers policy and billing platforms and has other offerings for the industry. The first solution is for developing products and quoting, binding and servicing of policies from agents and brokers to end-users. Its billing platform provides payment and invoicing, billing and collections, handling commissions and other ledger capabilities. The company also offers platforms for claims, ratings, engagement and sales channel automation.
As of August 18, Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN | ACN Price Prediction) owned about 55.2% of the shares in Duck Creek, which was classified as an investment and subject to a 180-day lock-up period whereby the company and its units will not sell the shares.
Duck Creek sold 15 million shares in its IPO at a price of $27 per share, above the expected $25 pricing originally. The stock first opened for trading at $42.00 on August 14 and went as high as $44.50 before last week’s sell-off knocked the stock down to $36.62 by Friday’s closing bell.
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One driving force is that the IPO quiet period has ended, and that means that the analysts at the underwriting syndicate firms can begin formal analyst coverage. That coverage mostly has been positive out of the gate, with no visible Sell ratings, and even the Neutral ratings had targets that were not that far off of Friday’s close.
The company had a rather large underwriting syndicate, and the firms have been noted in order as they appeared on its last prospectus:
- Goldman Sachs started it as Neutral with a $34 target.
- At JPMorgan, started as Neutral with a $43 target.
- BofA Securities started it as Buy with a $46 price objective.
- Barclays started it as Equal Weight and has a $43 target.
- RBC Capital Markets started it as Outperform with a $45 target.
- At JMP Securities, started as Outperform with a $44 target.
- Needham started it with a Buy rating and a $47 target.
- At Stifel, it was started with a Buy rating and a $50 target.
- William Blair started it as Outperform (no target price confirmed).
- D.A. Davidson started it as Buy with a $43 target.
- Raymond James started it as Outperform with a $44 target.
- Loop Capital Markets coverage not yet seen.
Duck Creek Technologies stock traded up 3.5% to $37.92 on Tuesday, and its post-IPO trading range is $35.10 to $44.50. It doesn’t sound like Duck Creek needs any jokes about paddles.
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