Robinhood Investors Getting Rich

by Fred Fuld III

Last Thursday, Robinhood (HOOD) went public at an IPO price of $38 per share. The stock sold off a little that first day, but today, the stock reached a price per share of $85 shortly after the stock market opened.

This works out to a 123% gain in one week. Not too shabby for a recent IPO.

Even if you had waited until yesterday to buy the stock on the close at $48.50, the gain would be 75%.

Robinhood has almost turned into a meme stock, not due to a short squeeze but do to the popularity of the stock, as it has garnered much attention on Reddit.

Options started trading on the stock today, and the volume and activity is huge. The strike prices range from 20 to 95 for all expirations from August to January of next year. Will higher strikes need to be added? Who knows? Maybe even lower strikes.

The August implied volatility is over 200% and September is in excess of 170%.

It will be interesting to see if Robinhood turns into another GameStop (GME) or AMC (AMC), or if it takes you for a RIDE.

 

Disclosure: Author owns two shares of HOOD.

 

 

Top IPO Tax Selling Stocks for a Possible Bounce in January

by Fred Fuld III

In case you haven’t noticed, many of the IPO stocks during the last year have turned out to be turkeys, making them possible tax sale opportunities.

If you are wondering what a tax selling stock is, it is a stock that is currently selling for a low price due to heavy year-end selling for tax purposes, but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

As the year-end approaches, many investors employ the technique called tax harvesting , which is the selling of loser stocks to offset any gains that may have been established during the year.

With all the heavy selling, the price of the stocks that have had big drops tends to tank far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a significant bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, here is a selection of some that have dropped by over 20% year-to-date. They all have market capitalizations over $500 million.

Stock Symbol Price Drop YTD
Chewy CHWY -29.5%
Fiverr FVRR -43.3%
Levi Strauss LEVI -20.5%
Lyft LYFT -47.1%
SmileDirectClub SDC -29.8%
Uber Technologies UBER -24.2%

Maybe someone’s tax losses can be your tax stock gains.

Disclosure: Author owns FVRR

IPOs for the Next Week

by Fred Fuld III

It seems like everyone is waiting for the long anticipated Uber IPO. The spotlight will be on the trading after Uber goes public, since Lyft (LYFT) has tanked to a record low today.

Your broker might not be participating in any or all of these IPOs, but if you are interested in any of them, it is worth checking. Just remember, just because there is an IPO, doesn’t mean the stock will jump in price. Remember Lyft.

Here are some IPOs scheduled for the next ten days:

NEXTCURE, INC. NXTC 5/9/19
CORTEXYME, INC. CRTX 5/9/19
AXCELLA HEALTH INC. AXLA 5/9/19
MILESTONE PHARMACEUTICALS INC. MIST 5/9/19
SOUTH PLAINS FINANCIAL, INC. SPFI 5/9/19
MAYVILLE ENGINEERING COMPANY, INC. MEC 5/9/19
DIAMOND EAGLE ACQUISITION CORP. \ DE DEACU 5/9/19
HEADHUNTER GROUP PLC HHR 5/9/19
APPLIED THERAPEUTICS INC. APLT 5/9/19
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC UBER 5/10/19
SONIM TECHNOLOGIES INC SONM 5/10/19
HEALTH SCIENCES ACQUISITIONS CORP HSACU 5/10/19
POSTAL REALTY TRUST, INC. PSTL 5/10/19
JIAYIN GROUP INC. JFIN 5/10/19
CONVERSIONPOINT HOLDINGS, INC. CPTI 5/14/19
BRICKTOWN BREWERY RESTAURANTS LLC BEER 5/15/19
PIMCO MORTGAGE INCOME TRUST INC. PMTG 5/16/19
FASTLY, INC. FSLY 5/17/19
LUCKIN COFFEE INC. LK 5/17/19
AVANTOR, INC. AVTR 5/17/19

Upcoming IPOs

by Fred Fuld III

Were you able to get any IPO shares of Zoom Video (ZM), Pinterest (PINS), or Greenlane (GNLN)? If you did, you made out like a bandit.

Zoom closed up 72% for the day. Pintrest was up over 23$. And Greenlane traded over 20% from its IPO price.

If you want to get in on one of these popular IPOs, try calling your broker. One brokerage firm will let you get in on an IPO as long as you qualify. The qualification is either an account with over $250,000 in assets OR an account with over 60 trades in the last 90 days.

Just because you are approved, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get shares. The firm has to be part of the underwriting, and it has to have enough shares to distribute to all its interested clients.

So if you are looking for upcoming IPOs, here is a list:

HEALTH SCIENCES ACQUISITIONS CORP HSACU
SONIM TECHNOLOGIES INC SONM
CONVERSIONPOINT HOLDINGS, INC. CPTI
CORTEXYME, INC. CRTX
SOUTH PLAINS FINANCIAL, INC. SPFI
MILESTONE PHARMACEUTICALS INC. MIST
MAYVILLE ENGINEERING COMPANY, INC. MEC
APPLIED THERAPEUTICS INC. APLT
NEXTCURE, INC. NXTC
PARSONS CORP PSN
AXCELLA HEALTH INC. AXLA
DIAMOND EAGLE ACQUISITION CORP.
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC UBER
AGBA ACQUISITION LTD AGBAU
RED RIVER BANCSHARES INC RRBI
SO-YOUNG INTERNATIONAL INC. SY
ACT II GLOBAL ACQUISITION CORP. ACTTU
TREVI THERAPEUTICS, INC. TRVI
TRANSMEDICS GROUP, INC. TMDX
SCIPLAY CORP SCPL
BRICKTOWN BREWERY RESTAURANTS LLC BEER
IHEARTMEDIA, INC.
POSTAL REALTY TRUST, INC. PSTL

Maybe some of these will skyrocket, but be careful. Lyft (LYFT) has dropped substantially since its IPO price.

Disclosure: Author owns LYFT indirectly.

IPOs that have Doubled in the Last Year

by Fred Fuld III

During the last twelve months, there have been almost 500 initial public offerings of stocks. Some have crashed and burned, some are doing OK, and some are doing well.

However there are several of these IPOs that have done extremely well, more than doubling in price, with most being in the healthcare industry (and a couple in the marijuana category).

Here is the list of IPO stocks that fall into the price-double category:

Canopy Growth Corporation ( CGC )
Correvio Pharma Corp. ( CORV )
Cronos Group Inc. ( CRON )
BRP Inc. ( DOOO )
Marker Therapeutics, Inc. ( MRKR )
Reading International, Inc. ( RDIB )
Sesen Bio, Inc. ( SESN )
SilverCrest Metals Inc. ( SILV )
Disclosure: Author owns CGC.

 

Does It Pay to Buy an IPO Stock?

by Fred Fuld III and Nkem Iregbulem

Have you ever tried to get in on a hot Initial Public offering but missed out? Suppose you could have been able to get some shares on the IPO. Do you think it would have worked out?

We ran an analysis of a large selection of all the stocks that went public during the first half of the year, to determine how successful the IPO shareholders would have been. We looked at both the return on the day of the IPO and the return from the IPO to the end of June.

You will notice that of the 23 stocks, some of the stocks were down on the first day of trading but ended up year-to-date. One example is Evolus (EOLS), a provider of Botox aesthetic treatments and procedures. The stock was down 4% on the day of the IPO but increased by 128% from its IPO in February to the end of June.

The mean average of the percentage returns for the stocks on the day of the IPO was 5.78%. The overall mean average of the returns from the day of the IPO to the end of June was 18.84%. That is a decent return, especially when you consider that the S&P 500 was only up 0.8% over the same period.

The details can be found below:

Company Symbol IPO price End of IPO Day Price %chg Price End of June %chg
Neuronetics STIM 17.00 27.78 63% 27.78 63%
Entera Bio ENTX 8.00 6.28 -22% 5.99 -25%
HyreCar HYRE 5.00 5.10 2% 4.89 -2%
The Lovesac Company LOVE 16.00 23.99 50% 21.33 33%
Chicken Soup for the Soul CSSE 12.00 9.25 -23% 9.56 -20%
I3 Verticals IIIV 13.00 18.35 41% 14.75 13%
Magenta Therapeutics MGTA 15.00 14.52 -3% 13.68 -9%
ElectroCore LLC ECOR 15.00 19.85 32% 17.46 16%
Iterum Therapeutics ITRM 13.00 12.24 -6% 11.50 -12%
Hancock Jaffe Laboratories HJLI 5.00 5.24 5% 3.40 -32%
CLPS Incorporation CLPS 5.25 5.04 -4% 13.43 156%
Aslan Pharmaceuticals ASLN 7.03 5.61 -20% 7.78 11%
GrafTech International EAF 15.00 14.45 -4% 18.46 23%
Biofrontera BFRA 9.88 12.18 23% 11.99 21%
Motus GI Holdings MOTS 5.00 4.38 -12% 7.27 45%
Victory Capital VCTR 13.00 11.60 -11% 10.10 -22%
Evolus EOLS 12.00 11.50 -4% 27.32 128%
One Stop Systems OSS 5.00 4.88 -2% 4.45 -11%
Genprex GNPX 5.00 4.50 -10% 7.90 58%
Pagseguro Digital PAGS 21.50 29.20 36% 27.82 29%
EyeNovia EYEN 10.00 9.92 -1% 6.45 -36%
Nine Energy Service NINE 23.00 26.10 13% 33.04 44%
ADT ADT 14.00 12.39 -12% 8.46 -40%
AVERAGE 5.78% 18.84%

 

How to Invest in Spotify Before It Goes Public

Many, many years ago, I was able to buy stock in Apple (AAPL) before it went public. Around the time when Apple Computer [that was the original name] was considering going public, I noticed an article in Forbes Magazine which mentioned that many of the shares were owned by a publicly traded closed end fund called the Nautilus Fund.

So I immediately bought some shares of the Nautilus Fund, not being sure of whether the CEF would sells the shares of Apple when it went public or would spin the shares out to the shareholders.

As it turned out, Apple had its initial public offering and the fund gave its shareholders the shares in Apple.

Now there is another hot company that is planning on going public but not through an IPO.

Spotify (SPOT) is a Stokholm, Sweden based music, podcast, and video streaming service with 160 million users, 72 million of which are paying customers.

You may have already heard that the company is expected to begin trading on April 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. This will be a direct listing, which means that no underwriters will be involved.

The reasons that the company is doing this are several, and the company has laid them out in its filing with the SEC for Form FWP 1 Filed Pursuant to Rule 433 under the Securities Act of 1933.

Here is what Spotify said in that document:

Many people have speculated about why Spotify is pursuing a Direct Listing.
We think it is best that you hear directly from us why we think this is the right approach for the people at Spotify.
From where we sit, there are five key reasons.
First, to list without the Company having to sell shares.
Second, to offer liquidity for shareholders.
Third, to provide equal access to all buyers and sellers.
Fourth, to conduct the process with radical transparency.
And fifth, is to enable market-driven price discovery through the New York Stock Exchange.

So can an investor get in before the trading date? If you are an accredited investor, you can get in on some private deals. An accredited investor is someone who has a net worth of at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of their home, or have income at least $200,000 each year for the last two years (or $300,000 combined income if married) and expect to make the same amount this year.

If you are not an accredited investor, there are a few other options, which involved buying shares of companies that own stocks of Spotify.

For example, Sony Music Entertainment International (SNE) owns over ten million shares or 5.7% of Spotify, according to an SEC filing. Obviously, this represents a very small amount of the Sony’s assets.

Tencent (TCEHY) did a stock swap with Spotify, so it owns a small percentage of the company. Tencent is the Chinese Internet and entertainment company.

Other publicly traded companies that own a piece of Spotify. Coca-Cola (KO) invested in the Series E round of Spotify. Goldman Sachs (GS) participated in both the Series E and the Series G round of investments.

One other way is to invest in a closed end investment company that specializes in pre-IPO investments. One closed end fund that fits this category is  GSV Capital (GSVC), which owns $32.3 million of Spotify shares based on what they show as fair market value on the GSV website. Spotify represents 15.4% of the GSV portfolio, which also includes shares of Palantir, Coursera, and Dropbox.

Just remember, even though many hot IPOs have been spectacular, not every new issue stock is successful.

Disclosure: Author owns shares of GSVC.

Eminem Catalog Launches 1st Music Royalty IPO

ROYALTY EXCHANGE TO LAUNCH IPO OF ROYALTY FLOW, AND ITS ICONIC MUSIC ROYALTY CATALOG

First is royalties in the producer’s share of hip-hop superstar EMINEM

DENVER (Sept. 25, 2017)—Royalty Flow, Inc. (“Royalty Flow”), a subsidiary of Royalty Exchange, the premier online marketplace for music and media royalties, today filed to offer its shares to the public under Title IV of the 2012 JumpStart Our Business Start-up (JOBS) Act, known as “Regulation A+”, paving the way for individuals to invest in iconic music royalties.

Royalty Flow intends to acquire and hold royalties from music catalogs of the world’s biggest music artists. The first of these iconic music catalogs will be the production company’s master sound recording royalties from the 1999-2013 recording catalog of hip-hop superstar EMINEM.

Royalty Exchange is working with the Detroit producers who first signed EMINEM, Jeff and Mark Bass—co-founders of “Funky Bass Team” (FBT) Productions—with their manager Joel Martin, to bring this opportunity to fans and investors alike.

To make this possible, Royalty Exchange created Royalty Flow, a one-of-a-kind company designed to acquire and hold royalty catalogs of music and other media.

Individual and institutional investors can buy shares of Royalty Flow—and with it share in the previously privately owned royalty catalog it holds—through an equity offering the company filed for today. Royalty Flow targets raising between $11 and $25 million.

Royalty Flow’s Regulation A+ offering will begin after the SEC qualifies the filing, expected sometime in October. Minimum buy-in is expected to be $2,250 for 150 shares ($15 per share). Following this “mini IPO,” Royalty Flow intends to list on a public stock exchange, where anyone can buy and trade shares and be eligible to collect dividends from the EMINEM royalties, as well as other world-class royalty assets as they are added.

“Royalty Flow gives investors the opportunity to participate in assets that are uncorrelated with public markets, and directly benefit in the music industry’s growth,” said Matthew Smith, CEO Royalty Exchange and Royalty Flow’s Chairman. “It also gives thousands of artists, producers, labels, songwriters, publishers, and other rightsholders who contribute to the success of the superstars they work with access to on-demand financing options with the kind of flexibility seldom found in the music industry.”

The Bass brothers and FBT own producer credits and additional royalties on all EMINEM recordings and releases from 1999 – 2013. They are making up to 25% of their master sound recording royalties in the EMINEM recording catalog available to investors through Royalty Flow.

This includes all EMINEM albums released in that timeframe (such as the diamond-certified The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show) as well as other EMINEM projects, contributions, and recordings.

With more than 172 million albums sold in his career, EMINEM is the second best-selling male artist of the last 25 years. Four of his albums remain on the Billboard 200 today, three are among the top 20 longest-charting albums of all time, and one—Curtain Call—was recently named the longest-charting hip-hop album in history.

The Bass brothers and Martin are groundbreaking champions for artists’ digital rights. They successfully fought for higher royalty payments for digital downloads and streaming, and  won a landmark legal victory with an award of a substantially higher rate than paid to most producers or artists.

“We believe Royalty Exchange is the new model for music financing,” said their manager, Joel Martin. “We’ve supported increased transparency for artists our entire career, and Royalty Exchange is no different. They give investors simple, direct access to royalty opportunities that previously were available only to industry insiders. This changes everything.”

To register for updates on the Royalty Flow crowdfunding campaign, or to get more information, please visit www.royaltyipo.com.

About Royalty Exchange
Royalty Exchange helps artists and rightsholders raise money by connecting them with private investors on the world’s first premium marketplace for royalty generating assets. Creators love us because our transparent marketplace helps them get fair market value for their work. Investors love us because we help them diversify into uncorrelated, income-generating assets. And our commitment to transparency and honesty ensures value for all. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About FBT/Bass Brothers

The Bass brothers, and their company FBT Productions, is the production team made up of Mark and Jeff Bass. Both are exceptional musicians, but their true talents lie in producing, working with the likes of Quincy Jones, George Clinton, D-12 and, of course, Eminem. After discovering and signing Eminem in 1995, the Bass brothers developed his signature musical style, producing and/or co-writing more Eminem tracks than any other producer on his most successful albums. This relationship garnered not only multiple Grammy awards, but also the Academy Award in 2003 for Best Original Song, “Lose Yourself.” For more background, see:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGIy1Y2CfCo

Disclaimer:

No money or other consideration is being solicited for our Regulation A+ offering at this time and if sent in to Royalty Flow will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities in a Regulation A+ offering of Royalty Flow can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until Royalty Flow’s offering statement is qualified with the SEC. Any such offer to buy securities may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time before notice of its acceptance given after the qualification date. Any indication of interest in Royalty Flow’s offering involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.

The securities to be offered will be highly speculative.  Investing in shares of Royalty Flow will involve significant risks.  Investment will be suitable only for persons who can afford to lose their entire investment.  Furthermore, investors must understand that such investment could be illiquid for an indefinite period of time.  No public market currently exists for the securities, and if a public market develops following the anticipated offering, it may not continue.

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” and other similar words. All statements addressing events or developments that Royalty Flow expects or anticipates will occur in the future, including but not limited to, the success of its crowdfunding campaign, listing on a securities exchange and development of a market for its securities, and its business strategy, including acquiring future royalties. Because they are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties, including without limitation: Royalty Flow’s ability to execute its equity crowdfunding and future growth strategies, the state of the music industry and payment under royalty interests, and the future popularity of Eminem. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Royalty Flow’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on the Royalty Flow’s forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Royalty Flow disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.