Seven Hot Summer IPOs Up 50% or More: Not All Created Equally

You know it is a good bull market when you have many initial public offerings (IPOs) trading up more than 50% from their debut in just a few short weeks or months. 24/7 Wall St. tracks IPOs from time to time to see which ones are performing better after their launch. Just do not believe for a moment that IPO gains are universal, because some actually have fallen since their debut.

We have listed these in order of performance, based on late-Thursday trading against the IPO price, and all have come public within the past 60 days or so. We have added color on each, including where shares opened after each IPO, so investors do not get duped into thinking that all post-IPO gains are created equal. As you will see, some of the “IPO gainers” may not be as large for those who bought shares in the IPO after-market.

Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (NYSE: SFM) is riding the wave of high-end and natural and organic foods. Its shares are up almost at post-IPO highs, as well as up almost 130% from the late-July debut. It priced at $18.00, but the reality is that the post-IPO range is $33.00 to $41.85. Either way, this is an impressive gain, and one must consider that the value is now about $6 billion for a company that has yet to reach the full U.S. geographies and had only 165 stores on last look.

Regado Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: RGDO) has soared, with gains of close to 100% since its August IPO. Some analysts still expect it to double with its cardiovascular treatments. Regado priced at $4.00, and its post-IPO range is $4.27 to $9.39. Shares were at $7.70 on last look, with a market cap of about $156 million.

Cvent Inc. (NYSE: CVT) is winning from helping event planners and planning destination sites use their platform to better manage events. Shares were down 2% late Thursday at $40.75, but that is up more than 90% from the $21.00 share price. Not bad for a mid-August time period, although we would point out that the post-IPO range is $30.01 to $46.13, for those who did not get shares at the IPO.

Benefitfocus Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT) is a fresh IPO that only debuted in the past couple of trading days. Shares priced at $26.50, but the post-IPO range is $41.50 to $55.87. Shares were down 8% at $49.00 late Thursday. This outfit offers cloud-based benefits software solutions for consumers, employers, insurance carriers and brokers.

Athlon Energy Inc. (NYSE: ATHL) has managed to gain from the August 1 IPO of $20.00 per share to almost $33 as of late Thursday trading. Its highest point, $33.47, was also on Thursday. So almost every single owner is up in the stock, even if the post-IPO low was $25.25. This is an oil exploration and production company in the Permian Basin.

China Commercial Credit Inc. (NASDAQ: CCCR) is one we have to include here, but frankly we would rather not. Its “60% gains” were because the price was very low, down at $6.50, and the gap up was to over $19 by the second day of trading, after closing at $12.45 on the opening day. Needless to say, there have been a lot of losses since then, and we do not really want to elaborate much on new Chinese companies at this time.

Intrexon Corp. (NYSE: XON) was up exactly 50% on last look, with shares at $24 in Thursday afternoon trading. The synthetic biology player came public at $16.00 on August 7, but we would caution that its post-IPO range is $20.65 to $31.44. Also note that the price of the stock now is under the gap up but well above the August lows. Much money has been made here, but there are some real losses as well.

As you can see from the color added on the deals above, not all IPO gainers are equal by any stretch of the imagination. Some are not even close.