They're back: IPO activity is heating up again

The stock market’s rally has reawakened the initial public offerings market, with five IPOs being launched yesterday and at least three more scheduled for this week. The five deals that were priced after the closing bell Wednesday marked the biggest single day for IPOs since Nov. 15, 2007, according to Renaissance Capital LLC. “The pipeline has a whole bunch of fundamentally sound companies that had been waiting to get a deal done,” said Renaissance research analyst Matthew Therian. For perspective on the significance of yesterday’s IPO volume, consider that, prior to yesterday, there had been just 23 IPOs over the past 12 months, including a stretch between November and April during which only one company went public. According to Mr. Therian, there are currently 85 companies considered eligible to go public. There are four companies scheduled to go public during each of the next two weeks. Of the companies that went public yesterday, A123 Systems is leading the first-day market performance. By 1:45 pm ET, the stock was up more than 42% from its offering of 28.2 million shares at $13.50. Yesterday’s other IPOs were: Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, which sold 10 million shares at $20; Artio Global Investors, which sold 25 million shares at $26; Colony Financial, which issued 12.5 million shares at $20 each; and Vitacost.com, Fla., which issued 11 million at $12 per share.