Enphase Energy (ENPH) reported earnings on Tue 30 Apr 2019 (a/h)

** charts before earnings **

 

 

** charts after earnings **

Enphase Energy beats by $0.03, beats on revs; guides Q2 revs above consensus

• Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.08 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of $0.05; revenues rose 43.1% year/year to $100.15 mln vs the $92.26 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.
• Co issues upside guidance for Q2, sees Q2 revs of $115 -125 mln vs. $96.42 mln S&P Capital IQ Consensus; GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin to be within a range of 32% to 35%; Non-GAAP operating expenses to be within a range of $21.0 million to $23.0 million.
• "We experienced component shortages which constrained our revenue in Q1'19. The capacity we paid for in May 2018 came online in Q1'19. We expect to get additional supply from our multi-year agreements for high-voltage power transistors; some of this supply is expected in Q2'19 and most of it is expected in the second half of 2019."

Tyson Foods exits Beyond Meat investment

The food giant had a 6.5 percent stake in the maker of plant-based protein products, which is preparing for an IPO next week.

(Bloomberg)—Tyson Foods Inc. has sold its 6.5 percent stake in Beyond Meat as the maker of plant-based protein products prepares for a public offering next week.

“Tyson Ventures is pleased with the investment in Beyond Meat and has decided the time is right to exit its investment,” the company said in an email, adding it plans to launch its own alternative protein product soon and expects to conduct market testing this summer.

Tyson’s investment arm originally purchased a 5 percent stake in the startup in October 2016, before increasing that to 6.5 percent. Beyond Meat, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, seeks to raise as much as $184 million in an IPO. The company’s plan to sell 8.75 million shares at $19 to $21 each would give it a market value at about $1.2 billion, according to filings.

Consumers are looking for more plant-based meat alternatives because of concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. Startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are tapping into that demand by offering beef-like versions of the veggie burger and other meat products.

Supermarket sales of meat alternatives surged 19.2 percent to $878 million for the year ended Jan. 5, 2019, according to data from Nielsen.

Beyond Meat is sold in grocery stores nationwide and is also increasingly being featured on restaurant menus. On Thursday, Del Taco Restaurants Inc. will start selling Beyond Meat tacos at its 580 U.S. stores after they passed the taste test with customers.

As Tyson ramps up its in-house veggie burger business, it still has a foot in meat alternative startups, with stakes in cultured meat makers like Jerusalem-based Future Meat Technologies and Memphis Meats, which boasts Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Cargill Inc. as investors.

Regular meat isn’t going away though, with U.S. government data showing per capita beef consumption is growing despite the rising popularity of alternative meat products. Global demand is also rising.

IPOs this week : April 22 - 26, 19

Expected IPO pricings: No new pricings are on the calendar for next week after a sizzling week for new offerings. In case you missed it, Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) jumped 28% on its first day of trading, while Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) topped that performance with a 72% rip.

IPO lockup expirations:

• Yeti (NYSE:YETI), StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) and Pintec Technology (NASDAQ:PT) see lockups expire on April 23. Yeti is the one that might see some insider selling with shares up 119% YTD.

IPO quiet period expirations:

• Genfit (NASDAQ:GNFT) and Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ:DTIL) on April 22; 
• Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) on April 23.

StoneCo (STNE) drops on anticipated competitive risk

Competition pressure in the Brazilian payments sector seems on the verge of disruption and intensification as Ita Unibanco (ITUB) has reportedly announced that it will not charge interest rates on cash advancements for small- and medium-sized merchants; stock plunges to its lowest levels in almost two months.

HOOKIPA Pharma (HOOK) began trading on the Nasdaq on Thur 18 Apr 19

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops immune-therapeutics targeting infectious diseases and cancers based on its proprietary arenavirus platform.

• Sector: Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• Full Time Employees: 85
• Founded in 2011
• Headquartered in New York, New York
• http://www.hookipapharma.com

HOOKIPA Pharma IPO opened for trading at $14.30 after pricing downsized 6 mln share (from 6.67 mln shares) IPO at $14.00, the low-end of the expected $14.00-16.00 range

Zoom Video Communications (ZM) began trading on the Nasdaq on Thur 18 Apr 2019

• Sector: Communication Services
• Industry: Telecom Services
• Full Time Employees: 2,240
• Founded in 2011
• HQ in San Jose, California
• http://www.zoom.us

Zoom Video opened for trading at $65.00 after pricing 20.87 mln share IPO at $36, above the increased $33.00-35.00 range
Zoom, whose shares finished at $62, raised nearly $350 million through its IPO

Zoom had a $7.6 million profit on $330.5 million in sales during its fiscal 2019, according to its regulatory filings. In 2018, Zoom lost $3.8 million on $151.5 million in revenue.

Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan

Zoom plans to target the hiring of recent computer science graduates in cities like Kansas City and Sacramento, where salaries aren’t as high as in Silicon Valley, where it’s based. Currently, 500 of the company’s 1,702 workers are in China, according to its regulatory filings, leaving unsaid that wages there are lower.

Pinterest (PINS) began trading on the NYSE on Thur 18 April 2019

The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc. and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc. in November 2010.

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Internet Content & Information
• Full Time Employees: 2,005
• http://www.pinterest.com
• Headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Pinterest (PINS) priced 75 mln share IPO at $19.00 per share, above the expected range of $15-17

Shares of the digital scrapbooking site rose more than 28% in their public debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The San Francisco-based company's stock, trading under the symbol "PINS," closed at $24.40, up $5.40 from the IPO price of $19 each.

Pinterest raised about $1.5 billion, based on 75 million shares in the offering. The deal's underwriters had the option to purchase an additional 11.25 million shares.

Pinterest is one of a lineup of technology-based initial public offerings set to begin trading including ride-hailing company Uber.

Pinterest co-founder & CEO Ben Silbermann, right, and fellow co-founder and chief product officer Evan Sharp, pose for photos outside the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, April 18, 2019, before the company's IPO. 

IPOs this week : April 15 - 19, 19

Expected IPO pricings: 

• A big week is on tap for IPO pricings, led by Pinterest (PINS) which has set a pricing target of $15 to $17 to bring in around $1.2B and value the company at around $9B. Pinterest saw revenue jump 60% last year to $756M and is projected to see 45% growth this year to about $1.1B. 
• Other pricing during the week include Palomar (PLMR) and Brainsway (BWAY) on April 16 
• as well as Zoom Video Communications (ZM), Brigham Minerals (MNRL), Turning Point Therapeutics (TPTX) and Hookipa Pharmaceuticals (HOOK) on April 17.

IPO lockup expirations: 

• SI-Bone (NASDAQ:SIBN) on April 15; 
• Osmotica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:OSMT), Studio City (NYSE:MSC) and PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PHAS) on April 16; 
• LogicBio Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LOGC), Niu Technologies (NASDAQ:NIU) and SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) on April 17.

IPO quiet period expirations: 
Analysts will start buzzing about Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI) on April 15. Levi's priced its IPO at $17, above the target range of $14 to $16. Shares closed at $22.22 on Friday. It doesn't appear that Levi's management is getting ahead itself after the company posted a solid Q4 and seeing the share price bounce. "We're still facing some headwinds, including anticipated door closures at traditional wholesale customers, unrest in Europe, as well as Brexit, continued uncertainty around China tariffs, and declines in U.S. retail traffic," stated CEO Chip Bergh on the earnings call.

Jumia (JMIA) began trading on the NYSE on Fri 12 April 2019

“The Amazon of Africa ” has 4 million active customers as of the fourth quarter of 2018, the company said in its S-1 filing. Jumia operates in 14 African countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Egypt.  Some of Jumia’s biggest customers are Apple, HP and Huawei.

• Priced 13.5 mln ADS IPO at $14.50, the midpoint of the expected $13.00-16.00 range
• Opened for trading at $18.95 
• The largest e-commerce operator in Africa, Jumia Technologies, surged more than 75% on its first day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Jumia co-CEO Sacha Poignonnec, left, applauds as Jumia Nigeria CEO Juliet Anammah, center, rings a ceremonial bell when the company’s stock begins trading, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, April 12, 2019.

The company was founded in 2012 as Africa Internet Group and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Shareholders include the Berlin-based incubator and venture-capital firm Rocket Internet SE, which helped the company with its founding and owns a 20.6% stake. South African company Mobile Telephone Networks Holdings Ltd. owns a 29.7% stake. Other early investors include French insurer Axa CS,  and French telecoms company Orange Sa.

 

Uber files S-1, applies to list common stock on NYSE under ticker "UBER"

UBER vs LYFT vs  BYND vs  PINS vs SNAP

Ride-sharing company Uber has filed its S-1, will list its shares on the NYSE under the ticker "UBER". The lead underwriters on the deal are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup, and Allen & Co.

• At this time, there is no expected price range for the IPO, and no set date either. Both of those data points will come in an amended S-1 in the coming week(s). However, UBER appears on track to launch its IPO within the next 2-3 weeks.

• Taking a look at a few of the financial highlights from its filing, gross bookings were up 45% in FY18 to $49.8 million, while revenue climbed 43% to $11.27 billion. The company is far from profitability, though, as it posted a ($3.0) billion operating loss for the year. Adj. EBITDA was also in the red at ($1.8) billion. 
  • A silver lining is that both of these metrics did improve from FY17, when it suffered an operating loss of ($4.1) billion and Adj EBITDA of ($2.6) billion.
  • As for its other key operating metrics, monthly active platform consumers were up to 91 million from 68 million, and total trips jumped to 5.22 billion from 3.7 billion.

PagerDuty (PD) began trading on the NYSE on Thur 11 Apr 2019

PagerDuty offers a subscription service that allows businesses to improve the constant interplay between software developers and operators—so-called DevOps—within their organization and lets them use real-time data to address incidents that occur. Competitors include Atlassian Corp.’s (TEAM) OpsGenie and Splunk Inc.’s (SPLK) VictorOps products.

• The cloud-based digital management platform priced 9.1 mln share IPO at $24.00 per share, above the revised expected range of $21-23
• Shares of PagerDuty  surged more than 59% to close at $38.25 Thursday, giving the company a valuation of $2.82 billion, according to FactSet data. 
• PagerDuty was founded in 2009 by three former Amazon developers. In 2016, the company hired industry veteran Jennifer Tejada as its CEO. She owns about 6 percent of the company. The biggest investors are Andreessen Horowitz at 18 percent before the offering, followed by Accel at 12 percent.
• The so-called DevOps market is expected to reach $10.3 billion a year by 2023, up from $3.4 billion last year, according to research from MarketsandMarkets. Ethan Kurzweil, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of PagerDuty’s biggest investors, said that these sorts of developer tools are gaining importance as software becomes central to the way more companies do business.

Chief Executive and Chairwoman Jennifer Tejada, who owns a 5.7% stake in the company following the offering, said PagerDuty is looking to serve an estimated $25 billion market made up of about 22 million software developers whose job it is to make sure that every app on our phone or program on our PC is working the way it’s supposed to and cut down on downtime. Tejada said in a telephone interview with MarketWatch from the New York Stock Exchange that about 300,000 developers currently use the platform.

PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada

PagerDuty, whose software helps technical teams quickly spot problems with applications and respond to incidents such as customer complaints, is used by developers at over 11,000 companies, including Slack, Box, Gap and Netflix. 

PagerDuty recorded a loss of $40.7 million on revenue of $117.8 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, after a loss of $38.1 million on revenue of $79.6 million in the same period a year ago. The number of customers paying $100,000 or more a year for the service rose to 228 from 144 in the previous year.

PagerDuty planned to sell 8.5 million shares in the IPO, while selling stockholders offered 570,000 shares. Underwriters were offered options for an additional 1.36 million shares.

====Papa Murphy's to be acquired by MTY Food Group for $6.45/share

• 2014 IPO

Papa Murphy's to be acquired by Canadian company MTY Food Group for $6.45/share in cash, or approximately $190 mln

Papa Murphy's is a franchisor and operator of the largest Take ‘n’ Bake pizza brand and the 5th largest pizza chain in the United States, selling fresh, hand-crafted pizzas ready for customers to bake at home. In addition to scratch-made pizzas, Papa Murphy’s offers a growing menu of grab 'n' go items, including salads, sides and desserts. Papa Murphy’s was founded in 1981 and operated 1,331 franchised and 106 corporate-owned stores in 37 U.S. states, Canada and the United Arab Emirates as of December 31, 2018.

====Tufin (TUFN) prices IPO at $14 a share

Israeli cybersecurity company Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. priced shares at $14 in its initial public offering Wednesday evening, setting up the Israeli cybersecurity company for a Thursday trading debut. Tufin announced that it will sell 7.7 million shares at the top of its proposed IPO range, to bring in at least $107.8 million at an initial valuation of about $454 million. Tufin, which sells software focused on security policy and implementation, reported a loss of $4.3 million on revenue of $85 million last year, when sales grew more than 30%, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Underwriters, led by JP Morgan, Barclays and Jefferies, have access to an additional 1.16 million shares if needed. Shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning under the ticker symbol TUFN.



Tufin helps security managers automate changes to their networks while maintaining compliance with industry regulations and without introducing vulnerabilities. The company claims 2,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries and it was co-founded by Kitov in 2005.

The company opened an office near Post Office Square in Boston in 2017. At that time, Kitov relocated to Boston from Israel and joined a team of 20 employees. In Boston, Tufin currently has a portion of the marketing and general administrative teams, as noted in the regulatory filing. The company, which also leases an office in Akron, Ohio, had a total of 119 employees in the U.S. as of December last year.

Tufin has raised a total of $30 million, according to Crunchbase. The company posted revenues of $64.5 million in 2017 and $85 million in 2018. In those years, Tufin also reported a net loss of $2.8 million and $4.3 million, respectively. In the filing, Tufin noted that its accumulated deficit as of December was $40.3 million.

In its upcoming IPO, Tufin is represented by White & Case. The company’s principal executive office is located in Ramat-Gan, a city with around 160,000 residents just east of Tel-Aviv, Israel.

PagerDuty (PD) hikes pricing range ahead of IPO

PagerDuty (PD) late Tuesday hiked the pricing range for its initial public offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The San Francisco-based cloud computing company set its pricing range at $21 to $23 a share, up from its previous range of $19 to $21 a share set on April 1. With a possible 10.4 million shares to be sold, including the nearly 1.4 million to cover overallotments, the company could potentially raise up to $239.9 million, giving the company a valuation of $1.72 billion.

=Palomar (NASDAQ: PLMR) launches roadshow for 5.625 million share IPO at $15-17/share

Co launched the roadshow for the initial public offering of its common stock. Palomar is offering 5,625,000 shares of its common stock, plus up to an additional 843,750 shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase. The initial public offering price is expected to be between $15.00 and $17.00 per share.
https://palomarspecialty.com/


Company Overview
Palomar Insurance Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary provides catastrophe insurance for personal and commercial property. Its products include commercial earthquake, commercial all risk, flood guard, residential earthquake, residential hurricane, and residential wind. The company sells its products through agents, brokers, and wholesalers. Palomar Insurance Holdings, Inc. was formerly known as Cottage Insurance Holdings, Inc. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in LA Jolla, California.


Key Executives For Palomar Insurance Holdings, Inc.

• Mr. D. McDonald Armstrong; Founder, Chairman & CEO
• Mr. Heath Adam Fisher; Co-Founder & President; Age: 44
• Mr. T. Christopher Uchida; Chief Financial Officer of Finance & Accounting; Age: 44
• Mr. Jon Marcus Christianson; Chief Operating Officer; Age: 38
• Mr. Jake Armstrong; Senior Vice President of Commercial Lines

Pinterest (PINS) sets IPO price range at $15-$17

The owners of Pinterest appear to be taking a cautious approach to their company's IPO following Lyft's (NASDAQ:LYFT) bumpy first week as a public company.

Launching its investor roadshow today, the online image website priced shares at $15 to $17, significantly below its last funding round, which sold stock at $21.54 and gave Pinterest a valuation of $12B.

The firm is set to begin trading on the NYSE next week under symbol "PINS" as part of a wave of high-profile but unprofitable tech startups that are now moving toward the public market.

Ben Silbermann, chief executive of Pinterest, at the company’s San Francisco office in August. 

How Lyft and Pinterest perform in their public debuts will be critical in the lead-up to the public offering of Uber, the largest of this generation of tech start-ups. Uber is expected to go public in the next few months at a valuation of around $120 billion, in what would be the biggest offering by an American company.

Several other smaller companies are planning public offerings, including Zoom, a video conferencing company; PagerDuty, a software company; and Slack, an office communications company.

Pinterest, which makes digital pin boards that allow people to save images and links from around the web, has traditionally been conservative in its spending and approach to growth. Its chief executive, Ben Silbermann, built Pinterest slowly and steadily. “Pinners,” as users are known, use Pinterest today to create collagelike mood boards on topics such as food, events and hobbies.

Mr. Silbermann’s approach has contrasted with those of other entrepreneurs who lead companies known as “unicorns,” which are valued at more than $1 billion by private investors. Such companies have typically prioritized fast growth over profits and take many years to go public. Unicorns that sell or go public below their last private valuation are known as “undercorns.”


Like its peers, Pinterest loses money. But the company, which generates revenue from advertising, is burning less cash than Lyft or Uber. Last month, Pinterest revealed it lost $63 million on revenue of $756 million in 2018. Pinterest is also growing quickly, reporting a 60 percent jump in revenue between 2017 and 2018.

IPOs this week : April 8 - 12, 19

Expected IPO pricings:

• Jumia Technologies (JMIA), Tufin Software Technologies (TUFN) and Pagerduty (PD) on April 10. 

IPO lockup expirations:

• Allogene Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ALLO) and Livent (NYSE:LTHM) on April 9; Anaplan (NYSE:PLAN) and Equilium (NASDAQ:EQ) on April 10.

Tradeweb Markets (TW) began trading on the Nasdaq on Thur 4 April 2019

• Tradeweb Markets, an online bond-trading platform, went public Thursday at $27 a share but opened on the Nasdaq at $34.26, a significant premium.
• Original price talk of 27.2 million shares at $24 to $26 was twice raised, eventually settling at 40 million shares at $27.
• The company is controlled by private-equity firm Blackstone (NYSE:BX), which acquired it last year as part of the takeover of Thomson Reuters' financial-data business.

Tradeweb raises $1.1 billion in year’s No. 2 IPO

Tradeweb Markets Inc. raised $1.1 billion in the second-largest U.S. initial public offering this year, after again increasing the number of shares it was selling and then pricing them above the marketed range.

The bond and derivative trading platform sold 40 million shares for $27 apiece Wednesday, according to a statement. Tradeweb had originally planned to sell 27.3 million shares for $24 to $26 each and had boosted the size of the offering Tuesday to 36.25 million shares to buy back more of the stock held by its bank investors.

The IPO values the New York-based company at about $6 billion based on its filings.

Tradeweb intends to use proceeds to buy shares held by eight of the 11 large banks that own stakes in the company, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and UBS Group, according to its registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Despite a slow start, 2019 is shaping up to be a blockbuster year for U.S. IPOs. Lyft Inc.'s $2.34 billion IPO week has been the biggest listing this year. Levi Strauss & Co.'s $623 million offering in February ranked third. Tradeweb's IPO is also the biggest for a financial services company in the U.S. since online lender GreenSky Inc. raised $874 million in May.

The offering follows benefits administrator Alight Inc.'s decision in March to postpone plans to raise up to $800 million in an IPO. Alight and Tradeweb are both owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group, which led the $17 billion acquisition last year of Tradeweb parent Refinitiv from Thomson Reuters.

Affiliates of Refinitiv will continue to hold about 54% of Tradeweb's outstanding common stock, according to filings.

Tradeweb, founded in 1996, builds and runs electronics markets for trading government bonds, derivatives, exchange-traded funds and other financial instruments over the counter. It handled an average of $549 billion in daily trades in 2018, according to its IPO prospectus.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the offering. Tradeweb started trading Thursday under the symbol TW on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, according to the statement.

Upwork (UPWK) : 6-month performance

IPOs this week : April 1 - 5, 19

Expected IPO pricings:

• Ruhnn Holding (RUHN) on April 2; 
• Silk Road Medical (SILK), NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NGM) and Tradeweb Markets (TW) on April 3.

IPO lockup expirations:

• Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) and Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH) on April 1; 
• Kodiak Sciences (NASDAQ:KOD) on April 2; 
• Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) on April 3.

IPO quiet period expirations:

• Shockwave Medical (NASDAQ:SWAV) on April 1 and 
• Futu (NASDAQ:FHL) on April 2.

Ironwood Pharma (IRWD) Spins off Cyclerion Therapeutics (CYCN)

 

• Sector(s): Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• Full Time Employees: 94
• http://www.cyclerion.com

In late-February, Cambridge, Mass.-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals announced it had entered into a private placement deal of up to $175 million that would be used to support its spinoff of Cyclerion Therapeutics. Today, Cyclerion has been launched on the second floor of a 200,000-square-foot, 3-story space on Binney Street, in Cambridge.

After the separation, no ongoing funding between Ironwood and Cyclerion is expected aside from some shorter-term transition expenses and other services. Ironwood isn’t expected to retain equity in the new company and did not invest in the private placement.

Cyclerion plans to utilize the power of sGC pharmacology to discover, develop and commercialize breakthrough treatments for serious and orphan diseases. It has a portfolio of five differentiated sGC stimulator programs each designed for unique target tissues.

At the time of the private placement, Peter Hecht, Ironwood’s then chief executive officer and expected chief executive of Cyclerion, stated, “We are grateful for the strong support from the outstanding and experienced group of investors who are participating in this financing. We look forward to launching Cyclerion and Ironwood less than one year since our initial announcement of the separation, and to advancing our efforts to create innovative new medicines for patients and generate value for our shareholders.”

Ironwood was founded in 1998 and developed Linzess to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation, which launched commercially in 2012 with Allergan. Ironwood has two experimental compounds in mid- and late-stage clinical trials for gastrointestinal disorders.

Mark Mallon, who recently took over as Ironwood’s chief executive officer after 24 years at AstraZeneca, told the Boston Globe, “These two companies are particularly well-positioned, post the spin[off], to really do great things. It was the right strategy at the right time.”