Textura (TXTR) shares plunge after fraud allegations

Deerfield, Illinois-based construction-software maker Textura Corp., which had one of the year's top IPOs, has been accused of lying to the SEC by short-seller Citron Research.

Textura shares slide nearly 17 percent on the report, closing at $31.43.

In a statement, Textura responded, "(We) find this report to include a variety of inaccurate and misleading statements and gross distortions. Textura completely rejects any allegation of fraud, collusion or deception in Textura's IPO or SEC filings."

"Textura encourages investors to rely on Textura's filings with the SEC as providing accurate information regarding the company and its performance, and not to rely on reports which may have purposes other than giving investors accurate information and impartial analysis," the statement continued.

Textura (TXTR) began trading on the NYSE on 7 June 2013

Textura, a Deerfield, Ill.-based company that makes web-hosted (a.k.a. “cloud”) software for contractors and construction firms, priced its IPO at the top of its range, after increasing the size of the deal twice. It then jumped 60% when the market opened, form its initial $15 to $24.

• revenues just under $22 million, 
• market cap under $500 million
• at $75 million, it was still the smallest software IPO of the year so far
• the company hits two hot themes — the housing and construction market, and the enterprise cloud software market. It also aims to not be a $22 million-revenue company for very long. It has generated sales of $15.3 million in the first six months of the year
• By the close, the stock had retreated from its opening price and ended at $20.91, a gain of 39%. That’s good for the fifth-best U.S. IPO first-day jump so far this year overall, and the third best enterprise software debut behind  Marketo (MKTO), which makes marketing software and jumped 78% in first-day action, and Tableau Software (DATA), a data visualization company that jumped 64%.