Palo Alto, Kayak Pop on First Day of Trade
Following Thursday's first-day pop of more than 55 percent (making it the top percentage gainer of the session), discount retailer Five Below continued its rise (although much more modestly) on its second day of trade on the Nasdaq. The stock ended up almost 3 percent for the day after initially slipping slightly in early trade. With a range of $26.10 to $29.33 throughout the day, shares ended at $27.27, more than $10 above the offer price of $17.
Meanwhile, two other companies made their debut Friday morning: Palo Alto, a security software company that's listed on the NYSE, and travel company Kayak Software, another Nasdaq stock.
Palo Alto got off to a soaring start in early trade, with shares up early more than 30 percent from their $42 offer price (which was well above its initial expected range of $34 to $37). The stock ended its first day of trade up close to 27 percent at $53.53, after trading in a range of $53.10 to $62.07.
Kayak also leaped, closing up 27 percent for the day, ending at $33.18. The company, which had initially delayed its debut after the Facebook faceplant in May, priced its offering on Thursday at $26, above the expected range of $22-$25 a share.
When you add Durata Therapeutics to the IPO mix this week (guitar maker Fender was supposed to debut on Friday as well, but it pulled out of the mix Thursday night), you're looking at approximately $500 million dollars raised in total. And Bloomberg notes that eight more debuts are expected next week. This is causing some to speculate that the IPO market, which hit a deep freeze following Facebook's debut, is set to sizzle again.
Not so fast, says Breakout's Matt Nesto, who notes that the cash raised this week is "certainly a lot of money by most measures, but truly a drop in the bucket in the rarefied world of Wall Street bankers."
"At this time last year, $23.6 billion worth of deals were on the docket," says Breakout's Jeff Macke. "It's about half that now."
To that note, Yahoo! Finance (along with partner CNBC) asked our users in a poll on Thursday: After the Facebook debacle, would you buy an IPO on the Nasdaq?
More than 80 percent of respondents gave the virtual thumbs down, with the majority (43 percent) saying it was because they don't trust the listing process.
