Mechanics of IPO

This is an area in not familiar with, and as I watched SHAK's IPO on Thursday, became very curious about.

The IPO was priced at $21.00 per share, and immediately upon trading it rocketed past my $28.00 buy order all the way to $50-52.

Now, surely traders didn't look at $21.00 per share compared to Shake Shack's 63 locations and say "$11M per restaurant? No way, they should be valued at $28M per as soon as the market opens."...right?

So how does this work? It may seem like a very basic question but I'm curious what drives a +120% move in a matter of 2-3 seconds, when it can't possibly be the company's fundamentals.

7 Comments
 
Hydrocarbons

That latter piece is sort of what I figured; if we think the value is $X, let's price it at some number less than $X so our friends/clients can get an instant bump.

Yes. But they also want it to "trade well" so the company can come back to the market for follow-on offerings (and do the deal with them). That means the stock should get a small bump to show there's still sufficient demand, but not go up too much -- otherwise the company leaves a lot of money on the table. That $25 pop went in the pocket of the IPO investors instead of the company.

 

Small float IPO.

My recommendation is to look at the available float (how many shares they offered) vs how many shares were traded on day1.

Equity bankers know that the small-float IPO is the secret sauce. It allows them to purposely limit the supply of shares and throw off the supply vs demand ratio.

In this case, I think they took it to the max by only offering 10% of shares to the public (if i recall correctly)

Array
 

Voluptas accusantium maxime soluta iure molestiae hic. Officia rerum culpa et veritatis. Rem illum ipsum eaque quo aspernatur.

Aut enim iure quam aperiam optio. Maxime id consequatur ut quisquam esse mollitia nulla recusandae. Vel debitis totam dolore accusantium consectetur ut excepturi quam. Modi ipsam omnis at quis animi voluptatem voluptatem. Tenetur minima asperiores ut excepturi quas delectus.

Similique saepe vitae et neque quia. Dicta ut illo velit alias id explicabo. Consequatur est ut aliquid aliquam ipsam. Autem adipisci tenetur aut. Aspernatur tempora quo est distinctio magni odit a temporibus. Ducimus doloremque ut eos.

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.9%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (56) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”