The IPO business: the buyers push back. A very mixed report card for the busiest week of the year for IPOs. Did I say mixed? How about crummy.
Eight were scheduled to price overnight, and so far only six have made it.
Thursday's IPO scorecard
1 Above range (Glaukos)
1 Middle of range (TransUnion)
1 Bottom of range (Millacron)
3 Below range (Lantheus, Catabasis, Gener8 Maritime)
1 Postponed (Wayne Farms)
1 MIA (CNX Coal)
Wow. That is a pretty poor scorecard. An IPO bubble? Not on your life. In a bubble, everything prices above the range. That sure is not happening.
What is happening? The tape is telling you that IPO sellers are force-feeding the market. Buyers are pushing back, they are telling the sellers that there is too much product and they don't want a lot of it, or at least not at the prices being floated.
That is a good sign. That's the best protection against a bubble forming.
For those who want the details:
1) The big winner: Glaukos (glaucoma treatment products), is the clear winner. They raised terms yesterday, to $16-$17 from $13-$15, priced at $18, and they added more stock, opened at $29.11.
2) Doing OK: TransUnion, the credit reporting company, priced 29.6 million shares at $22.50, at the high end of the $21-$23 price talk, opened at $24.62.
3) Bottom of range: Milacron Holdings, which makes plastics processing equipment. The company has emerged from a 2009 bankruptcy filing. Priced at $20, low end of $20-$22 price talk, opened at $19.50.
4) Below range: Catabasis Pharmacuticals (technology for improving drug efficacy); priced at $12, below the price talk of $13-$15;
Lantheus Holdings (diagnostic medical imaging agents) priced at $6, well below the price talk of $8.50-$10.50, and added more stock, opened at $6.12;
Gener8 Maritime (seaborne crude oil transportation) priced at $14, well below the price talk of $17-$19, opened at $12.75 (ouch!)
5) Postponed: Wayne Farms, a broiler chicken processing company that supplies chickens to Chic-fil-A, Costco, and others. Why the postponement? Not clear, but may be concerns about chicken prices and exports due to avian flu.
6) Day to day: CNX Coal Resources (Coal MLP, with 10 percent dividend!)