IPO Market Picking Up:
Align Technology (ALGN) shares gained 33% on Friday as the market for initial public offerings continued to show signs of perking up.
Shares of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Align, which makes a transparent orthodontic device called Invisalign, rose $4.31 to close at $17.31 on Nasdaq--but only after they were priced below the expected range as investors continued to drive tough bargains.
The company priced 10 million shares at $13 on Thursday evening, below the $14-to-$16 target set by lead underwriter Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, and raised $63 million.
The pattern was similar to that of the Peet’s Coffee & Tea (PEET) IPO, which was sold at the bottom end of the expected price range Wednesday evening before being bid up in the next day’s trading.
Peet’s, the year’s first IPO, sold 3.3 million shares at $8 each, but in Thursday’s debut the stock rose $1.38 to close at $9.38 on Nasdaq. In Friday’s trading, Peet’s gained $3.69 to close at $13.06.
Meanwhile, Xenogen Corp. (XGEN) on Thursday trimmed and delayed its IPO until Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News.
The Alameda, Calif.-based company, which sells mice infused with light-producing genes to help with drug discovery, cut the expected price to $9 from $10 to $12 for the 7 million shares it plans to sell.
