Spark Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: SPKE) recently had its initial public offering and the analysts’ ratings have started coming in following the end of the post-IPO quiet period. The offering consisted of 3 million shares of Class A common stock at $18 per share at the end of July. Stifel Nicolaus and Robert W. Baird acted as joint book-running managers.
Spark Energy is an energy retailer that operates out of Houston, and it services both residential and commercial clients. As of March 31, 2014, Spark operated in 46 utility service territories across 16 states. It had approximately 222,500 residential customers and 18,500 commercial customers.
After the IPO, the stock rose to a high of $18.38 then subsequently dropped to its low of $16.81. Over the past month, Spark has had its ups and downs, generally within the $17 to $18 range. The stock closed Friday at $17.87, making an approach toward its previous high.
With this month almost in the books, the analysts have been released to make their formal ratings announcements. Stifel initiated a Buy rating for the company. Wunderlich initiated a Buy rating with a price target of $20. Baird started Spark as Outperform with a $20 price target.
The market cap for Spark was $245.7 million, with an average trading volume of roughly 175,000 as of Friday’s close. Apparently the market was hoping for larger upside price targets because the stock was down just over 3% at $17.30 in early trading on Monday and was down 1.1% at $17.66 on last look.
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