Tuesday, June 11, 2013

5 of Last Month's Hottest IPOs

Let's hope that "sell in May and go away" doesn't refer to the several companies that went public last month.

From a well-known financial services provider to some promising tech upstarts, it was a busy month of debutantes. Let's turn our attention to the winners. Here are some of last month's best performers among the May IPOs.

Company 

IPO

May 31, 2013

Gain

Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO  )

$13

$23.67

82%

Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA  )

$31

$51.10

65%

Epizyme (NASDAQ: EPZM  )

$15

$22.99

53%

ING U.S. (NYSE: VOYA  )

$19.50

$28.53

46%

Insys Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INSY  )

$8

$11.04

38%

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Marketo was last month's biggest winner. The developer of marketing automation software is growing quickly. Revenue soared 61% in this year's first quarter. It is currently losing money, but that's not a deal breaker for investors. There have been a lot of acquisitions in the enterprise software realm, so any company turning heads with heady growth will likely be considered a potential buyout candidate by the market.

Tableau went public on the same day as Marketo. Both stocks had big pops on their first day of trading, and IPO specialist Renaissance Capital claims that this is only the second time since the sudsy dot-com bubbly days of 2000 that two IPOs have delivered initial day gains of 50% on the same day.

Tableau provides interactive data visualization software. Revenue more than doubled to $127.7 million last year, but worrywarts argue that Tableau is too early in its growth cycle to command its nearly $3 billion market cap. For now, the bulls are the ones getting the last laugh.

Epizyme still has that new stock smell. The biotech went public at $15 on Friday, popping 53% higher on its first day of trading. Epizyme is trying to identify genes that cause cancer and treatments to tackle them. It has two lead candidates targeting gene-based leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Investors will naturally need to be patient during the long clinical trials process, but the payoffs can be substantial if Epizyme nabs a winner.

ING is the financial services giant with an emphasis on retirement planning through savings and insurance products. If the VOYA ticker symbol is a head scratcher, just wait. ING plans to rebrand itself as Voya Financial later this year.

ING posted its first quarterly results as a public company two weeks ago, and it's moving in the right direction with operating earnings after taxes climbing 7%.

Finally, we have Insys Therapeutics. Insys has two marketed products including Subsys, a spray for breakthrough pain in opioid-tolerant cancer patients. Its lead product candidate is an orally administered liquid formulation of dronabinol that would provide supportive care if it's approved.

Insys reported quarterly results this morning, and Subsys accounted for $9.7 million of the $11.1 million it recorded in revenue. Insys came through with a small profit, too.

It was a strong start for these five winners. Now let's see which debutantes shine in June.

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