The first half of the year is almost in the bag, and while the major market indexes continue their overall trend higher, the IPO market has been 2019’s biggest unsung winner.
While strong economic data and a broader market rally are cited as the IPO market’s biggest drivers, much of the bullish sentiment can be attributed to the booming tech sector. As of June 24, there have been 25 tech IPOs this year, all of which raised a combined $19 billion. That alone would be impressive, but those stocks have also seen an average first-day return of 34% – the best in six years – and an average overall return of 30%.
But even more surprising is that, despite 2019’s glut of tech offerings, the top performer of the year isn’t in the tech sector. Instead, it’s a rapidly growing and exceptionally hyped food company whose shares have exploded more than 500% in their less than two months on the market.
Here are the top-performing IPOs of the year, ranked by overall share-price performance…
No. 5: Pinterest Inc. (PINS)
Pinterest is a social media company that lets users “pin” images or photo collections to topical online boards. These are often categorized by interest to allow people to discover new ideas about various topics. It boasts incredible user growth, with the site’s monthly active users (MAUs) more than doubling from 100 million to 250 million between September 2015 and September 2018. In its first earnings report as a public company, Pinterest said MAUs jumped 22% year-over-year from 239 million to 291 million in Q1 2019. However, the traditional financials were less than stellar, as the firm’s loss of $0.32 per share was worse than Wall Street’s expected loss of $0.11 per share.
On April 17, Pinterest raised $1.43 billion by selling 75 million shares above the $15-$17 range at $19. PINS closed its first day of trading at $24.40 for a strong debut gain of 28.4%. The stock has earned an overall return of 37.6% from the $19 offer price to the June 24 close of $26.14.
No. 4: CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD)
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity firm that offers endpoint security and response services to customers and companies in more than 150 countries. It gained recognition for attributing the 2014 Sony Pictures hack to North Korea and extensively demonstrated how the foreign government was able to infiltrate the company’s servers. Since then, CrowdStrike has aided in countermeasures against several other high-profile attacks, including the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak.
The firm’s June 11 IPO generated $612 million by offering 18 million shares at $34 each, far above the original $28-$30 price range. Shares of CRWD saw a first-day return of 70.6%, which remains one of the best first-day performances of the year. They’re currently up 81% from the $34 IPO price to $61.52.
No. 3: PagerDuty Inc. (PD)
PagerDuty offers a cloud-based digital platform that lets companies improve the interplay between software developers and operators within their organization. The software serves as a “central nervous system” for a company’s IT services, letting the company monitor its services and be immediately alerted of any internal issues. According to CEO Jennifer Tejada, roughly 300,000 developers already use PagerDuty’s platform, contributing to the firm’s 48% revenue growth from 2017 to 2018.
The company hit the market on April 10 with a $218 million deal, offering 9.1 million shares above the $21-$23 range at $24 apiece. PD stock rocketed 59.4% on the first day to close at $38.25. Shares have seen a total 98% gain since the IPO.
No. 2: Zoom Video Communications Inc. (ZM)
Zoom is a video-conferencing company that connects users through video, voice, chat, and content-sharing messaging platforms. Unlike many tech unicorns, Zoom broke even before going public by earning $0.03 per share on revenue of $330.5 million during its most recent fiscal year. The financials proved just as strong in the company’s first-ever earnings report, with year-over-year revenue climbing 103% to $122 million for the three months ended April 30.
The company generated $751 million on April 17 by selling 20.9 million shares above the $33-$35 range at $36 each. Shares of ZM stock roared 72.2% on their first day to settle at $62. The stock has since reached $85.03, making for a total 136.2% return from the $36 offer price.
No. 1: Beyond Meat Inc. (BYND)
Far and away the most explosive IPO of the year so far is Beyond Meat, the producer of plant-based burgers, hot dogs, and other meat products for both grocery stores and restaurants. The company has inked partnerships with several high-profile chains – including Tim Hortons and Chanticleer Holdings Inc. (BURG), which owns Hooters – and made significant headway in disrupting the $1.4 trillion global meat industry. While it’s yet to report a profit, the firm’s revenue surged 167% period-over-period to $56.4 million in the first nine months of 2018.
It’s safe to say most people didn’t see Beyond Meat’s rally coming when it made a slightly-above-average debut compared to the other firms on this list. Beyond Meat went public on May 1 and raised just $241 million by offering 9.6 million shares at the high end of the $23-$25 range. But BYND stock exploded during its first session with a monster 163% gain. Overall, shares have climbed from the $25 offer price to $150.60 on June 19 for a whopping 502.4% rally.