2020 has been a huge year for IPOs.
The Renaissance IPO ETF (NYSE 🙂 – which tracks a basket of recently listed US companies – rallied as much as 114.6% since last year, hitting a string of new record highs in recent days. It in turn is up just 14.6% over the same period.
Busy year for new listings is on track, with Airbnb (NASDAQ :), the online vacation rental marketplace}} that has disrupted the hotel industry, and Doordash's on-demand food delivery service (NYSE: {{1167745) | DASH) both scheduled to go public this week, just before 2020 draws to a close.
Below, we'll focus on a trio of new publicly traded IPOs of technical unicorns that have more than doubled in valuation since going public this year. All three have the potential to become market leaders in their field due to the rapid growth and growing demand for their products:
1. Snowflake
Trade debut: September 16
Initial Debut Price: $ 120.00
Gains since going public: + 225%
Snowflake (NYSE :), whose data warehouse software helps companies manage and share vast amounts of information, made headlines earlier this year when it became the largest software IPO in history.
The cloud-based data storage and analysis provider priced its shares at $ 120.00 on September 15, but on their first day of trading on September 16, they were 112% higher than that IPO price, at $ 253.93.
The red-hot stock showed no signs of cooling in the weeks following its strong debut, rising to a record high of $ 428.68 on Tuesday December 8.
SNOW finally closed yesterday's session at $ 390.00, giving the San Mateo, California-based software-as-a-service company a valuation of $ 94.6 billion.
Snowflake published the highest and lowest figures in its first earnings report as a public company on December 2. Losses fell from $ 1.92 per share in the same quarter a year ago to $ 1.01 per share, while sales grew 119%. up to $ 159.6 million year-over-year due to strong additions to customers.
At the end of October, the cloud data warehousing specialist counted approximately 3,550 companies and organizations as clients, including seven of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies.
In a sign that bodes well for the future, the cloud database provider now has 65 customers contributing more than $ 1 million in annual recurring product revenue.
Despite strong earnings and high valuations, SNOW stock still looks attractive going forward given the high demand for its cloud-based services. The fact that both Warren Buffett & # 39; s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE :), (NYSE 🙂 and cloud giant Salesforce (NYSE 🙂 are investing in the company doesn't hurt either.
2. Palantir Technologies
Trade debut: September 29
Initial Debut Price: $ 10.00
Gains since IPO: + 185.9%
Palantir Technologies (NYSE :), which provides data analysis software and services to government agencies and large corporations, made its trading debut on September 29 via direct listing and expected an opening price of $ 10.00 a share.
PLTR shares have since made massive gains, 185.9% higher than the starting price. Shares hit a record high of $ 31.21 on September 29, before finishing at $ 28.59, bringing the Denver, Colorado-based business software company to a market cap of $ 50.1 billion.
Palantir delivered a beat-and-raise quarter on Nov. 12 in its first earnings report as a publicly traded company, with sales up 52% ??to $ 289.4 million. The positive results reflected increased demand for its data analysis software amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In a promising sign, the technology company noted that its "customer concentration is declining". Palantir reported that 61% of its sales in the first nine months of 2020 came from the top 20 customers, against 68% on the same trajectory in 2019.
Looking ahead, Palantir increased its full-year revenue forecast from about $ 1.06 billion to about $ 1.071 billion, representing 44% growth over the same period a year earlier.
With 125 customers, the software maker wants to expand into various other sectors, such as healthcare, energy and manufacturing.
Palantir recently won a three-year $ 44.4 million contract with the US Food and Drug Administration, during which it will focus on conducting drug reviews and inspections for the agency.
We expect Palantir to continue to thrive thanks to impressive sales growth and increased demand for its high-tech software tools, but its sky-high valuation leaves little room for error.
3. Unity Software
Trade debut: September 18
Initial Debut Price: $ 52.00
Gains since IPO: + 221.6%
Unity Software (NYSE :), which provides video game creation tools, made its trading debut on September 18. The San Francisco, California-based company saw its stock rise from its projected opening price of $ 52 a share by as much as 44% on their first day of trading, before finishing 31.4% at $ 68.35.
U Share, which has maintained its appeal in the weeks following the IPO, closed yesterday at a record high of $ 167.25, giving the video game software developer a market cap of $ 43.7 billion.
That is an increase of 221.6% from the stock price of $ 52 per share.
Unity reported and sales in its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company on Nov. 12 and provided sales advice that exceeded opinions.
The video game software maker lost an adjusted $ 0.09 per share, compared to an estimated loss of $ 0.15 per share. Revenue, meanwhile, grew 53.5% over the same period last year to $ 200.8 million, far exceeding expectations for revenue of $ 186.9 million, reflecting growing demand for the development platform for video games.
The number of customers who spend $ 100,000 or more on Unity's platform on September 30 increased from 553 a year ago to 739,
.
For the current quarter, Unity Software sees sales of $ 200 million to $ 204 million. That was well above consensus estimates that spawned revenue of $ 196.1 million. Unity also delivered an optimistic fiscal year for fiscal 2020, calling for sales between $ 752 million and $ 756 million. That would indicate a growth of 38.8% to 39.5% in revenues of the video game software developer in 2019.
Shares of Unity Software continue to look attractive in the run-up to 2021, largely due to accelerated growth and strong demand for video game development tools.
