Spotify Explodes in Market Debut

By Chris Lange Published Apr 3, 1:25PM EDT

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Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) entered the market as perhaps one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year. The company is taking a slightly different approach by doing a direct listing, meaning that it isn’t looking to raise any new capital. Apart from that, the stock has absolutely exploded in the market, confirming practically all the bullish analysts ahead of the offering.

It’s worth pointing out that there are no underwriters as this is a direct listing.

Morgan Stanley, which is serving as the lead advisor for Spotify, gave the last reference price in the secondary market that traders were going off as $132. However, with demand rising, the stock actually opened at $165 and reached as high as nearly $170 once shares came public.

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As we have said before, analysts have been overly bullish on this stock. Some believe that it could very well be the next Netflix. But here is what analysts have said ahead of the debut:

Gabelli has a Hold rating with a $130 price target.
Guggenheim has a Buy rating with a $175 price target.
MKM Partners has a Buy rating with a $200 price target.
RBC has an Outperform rating with a $220 price target.
Atlantic Securities has an Overweight rating.

Spotify first launched its service in 2008. Music industry revenues had already been in decline. To that point, total global recorded music industry revenues falling from $23.8 billion in 1999 to $16.9 billion in 2008. From 2008 to 2014 those revenues continued to decline to $14.3 billion.

While Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon are the primary shareholders, Sony Music Entertainment has a 5.7% stake, Another 5.4% stake is held by TCV, another 6.9% is held by Tiger Global, and another 7.5% stake is held by Tencent.

Shares of Spotify were last seen up 22% at $160.49, with a range of $163.00 to $169.00 on the day as of 1:15 p.m. Eastern. Also, about 14 million shares had moved on the day thus far.

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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.