Initial Public Offerings: Updated Statistics

Jay R. Ritter
Cordell Eminent Scholar, Eugene F. Brigham Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate
Warrington College of Business, University of Florida
352.846-2837 voice
June 14, 2022

Table 1: Mean First-day Returns and Money Left on the Table, 1980-2021
Table 1a: Also including the post-issue aggregate market value, 1980-2021
Table 2: Mean First-day Returns, Categorized by Sales, for IPOs from 1980-2021
Table 3: First-day Turnover Categorized by Decade and First-Day Return, 1983-2021
Table 3b: First-day Turnover Categorized by NYSE and Nasdaq Listings, 1983-2021
Table 4: Median Age and Fraction of IPOs with VC- and Buyout-backing, 1980-2021
Table 4a: Median Price-to sales Ratios of Tech-stock IPOs, 1980-2021
Table 4b: Profitability and Median Sales of Technology and Biotech IPOs, 1980-2021
Table 4c: The number of VC-, Growth Capital-, and Buyout-backed IPOs, 1980-2021
Table 4d: VC-backed IPOs, restricted to those headquartered in the U.S., 1980-2021
Table 4e: Proceeds and Post-issue market value of tech stock IPOs, 1980-2021
Table 4f: Mean and Median inflation-adjusted Proceeds and Market Cap, 1980-2021
Table 4g: Biotech IPOs (Median age, Mean underpricing, # with sales>0, # with EPS>0), 1980-2021
Table 4h: Technology Company IPO Underpricing, 1980-2021
Table 5: Number of U. S. IPOs with an offer price of greater than $5.00 that doubled (offer to close)
in price on the first day of trading, 1997-2021
Table 6: Number of Initial Public Offerings, First-Day Return, and Revisions from the File Price
Range by Cohort Year, 1990-2021
Table 7: Percentage of IPOs Relative to File Price Range, 1980-2021
Table 8: Number of Offerings, Average First-day Returns, and Gross Proceeds of Initial Public
Offerings in 1960-2021, by Year
Table 9: Fraction of IPOs with Negative Earnings, 1980-2021
Table 10: Gross Spreads Continue to Remain at 7% on Moderate-Size Deals, 2001-2021
Table 11: Mean and Median Gross Spreads and Number of Managing Underwriters, 1980-2021
Table 12: Number of IPOs Categorized by the LTM Sales Over/Under $50 million (2005 $), 1980-2021
Table 12a: Median Market Cap and Pre-IPO Sales (2005 $), and Median Price-to-sales ratio, 1980-2021
Table 12b: Number of IPOs Categorized by the LTM Sales Over/Under $1 billion (2011 $), 1980-2021
Table 13: IPO Auctions in the U.S., 1999-2021
Table 13a: Direct Listings in the U.S., 2018-2022
Table 14: The Market Share of Foreign Companies Among U.S. Listings, 1980-2021
Table 15: How Many IPOs are There? 1980-2021
Table 15a: Closed-end Funds, REITs, and SPACs, and IPO Volume and Average First-day Returns
with Banks, LPs, and ADRs Included, 1980-2021
Table 15b: SPACs, 1990-2021
Table 16: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by the Pre-issue Sales of the Firm, 1980-2020
Table 16a: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by $1 Billion Sales of the Firm, 1980-2020
Table 16b: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by the Profitability of the Firm, 1980-2020
Table 16c: Long-run Returns Measured from the Offer Price on Tech and non-Tech Stock IPOs
Excluding the Internet Bubble, 1980-2019
Table 16d: Long-run Returns Measured from the First Closing Market Price on Tech and non-Tech Stock
IPOs Excluding the Internet Bubble, 1980-2019
Table 16e: Distribution of 3-year and 5-year Buy-and-Hold Returns on IPOs, 1975-2018
Table 16f: Aftermarket Returns with and without Including the First-day Return, 1980-2020

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Table 17: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-backing or Buyout Fund-backing
Table 17a: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-, Growth Capital-, or Buyout Fund-backing
Table 18: Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-backing, by Subperiod
Table 19: Table I of Ritter and Welch 2002 Journal of Finance article: Number of IPOs, First-day
Returns, and Long Run Performance, 1980 to 2020 (returns through Dec. 31, 2021)
Table 20: Returns by Event Year for the First Five Years after the IPO for IPOs from 1980-2019
Table 21: Mean and Median Public Float, 1980-2021
Table 22: Non-distress Delistings within Three Years of the IPO
Table 23: Dual Class IPOs, by Tech and Non-tech,1980-2021
Table 24: Long-run Returns for Dual Class and Single Class IPOs, 1980-2020

Figure 1: First-day Turnover Categorized by Decade and First-Day Return, 1983-2018

Figure 2: Fraction of IPOs with Negative EPS and Fraction of Tech Stocks, 1980-2021
Figure 3: Mean and Median Public Float, 1980-2021
Figure 4: Average First-day Return and Aggregate Amount of Money Left on the Table, 1990-2021
Figure 5: Number of IPOs and Average First-day Return, 1980-2021
Figure 6: Number and Percentage of U.S. IPOs from Chinese Companies, 1990-2021

311 operating companies went public in the U.S. in 2021, excluding ADRs, natural resource limited
partnerships and trusts, closed-end funds, REITs, SPACs, banks and S&Ls, unit offers, penny stocks (offer
price of less than $5 per share), and stocks not listed on Nasdaq or the NYSE (including NYSE MKT LLC, the
former American Stock Exchange). For 2016, I have included BATS Global Markets, which went public in
April, but was listed on BATS before being acquired by CBOE Holdings in 2017.
Of these 311 operating companies, 262 were from the U.S. A higher volume figure has been reported in many
sources (over 1,000 counting all offerings), but the higher numbers typically include not only operating
companies (mostly domestic), but also some companies that were already traded in other countries and are thus
actually follow-on offerings, banks and S&Ls (11 offerings, most of which are typically mutual conversions
with depositors buying the stock), oil & gas partnerships or unit trusts (0 offerings), ADRs (36 offerings),
REITs (5 offerings), 613 special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), 10 closed-end funds (not including
interval funds listed at cefa.com), other unit offerings (1 offerings), IPOs that do not trade on the NYSE
(including NYSE MKT) or Nasdaq (0 offerings), IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 (12 offering), and small
best efforts deals (8 offerings, not all of which were small, but all but one were banks). There were also 6 direct
listings. There are also several bulletin board-traded issues that I (and Dealogic) classify as follow-ons, and thus
don’t count, but which Thomson-Reuters classifies as IPOs.
Note: Many of these tables have been updated to include 2021 numbers with the assistance of Da Tian. Some of
the tables may have slightly different counts for the number of IPOs in some years. These inconsistencies are
because I periodically add or delete a company that had been misclassified or find some missing data. I do not
immediately update every table. I rely on data from Thomson Reuters (SDC) and Dealogic, but also use
information from IPOScoop.com and Renaissance Capital and the prospectuses, and other sources. For IPOs
from June 1996 and later, the prospectuses (S.E.C. form 424B) are available on EDGAR. For IPOs from 1975-
1996 (the pre-EDGAR days), I have most of the original paper prospectuses courtesy of Graeme Howard and
Todd Huxster. For foreign IPOs from 1996-2000, the S.E.C. did not require electronic filing, so they are not
available on EDGAR, but I have the paper copies for many of them.
In almost all of my tables, I use a more conservative definition of what is an IPO than most other data providers.
Partly, the definition that is appropriate depends upon what one is focusing on. From an underwriter’s point of
view, anything that generates fees is relevant. I exclude some of these categories (such as LPs) partly because it
is difficult to determine the founding date of the underlying assets, and I do not like to have a different number
of firms in different tables. Another motivation is that I am focusing on operating companies that potentially
create jobs.

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 Table 1: Mean First-day Returns and Money Left on the Table, 1980-2021 (updated June 4, 2022)
The sample is IPOs with an offer price of at least $5.00, excluding ADRs, unit offers, closed-end funds, REITs, natural
resource limited partnerships, small best efforts offers, banks and S&Ls, and stocks not listed on CRSP (CRSP includes
Amex, NYSE, and NASDAQ stocks). Proceeds exclude overallotment options. The amount of money left on the table is
defined as the closing market price on the first-day of trading minus the offer price, multiplied by the shares offered.
Mean First-day Return Aggregate
Number Equal- Proceeds- Amount Left on Aggregate
Year of IPOs weighted weighted the Table Proceeds
1980 71 14.3% 20.0% $0.18 billion $0.91 billion
1981 192 5.9% 5.7% $0.13 billion $2.31 billion
1982 77 11.0% 13.3% $0.13 billion $1.00 billion
1983 451 9.9% 9.4% $0.84 billion $8.89 billion
1984 171 3.7% 2.5% $0.05 billion $2.02 billion
1985 186 6.4% 5.6% $0.23 billion $4.09 billion
1986 393 6.1% 5.1% $0.68 billion $13.40 billion
1987 285 5.6% 5.7% $0.66 billion $11.68 billion
1988 105 5.5% 3.4% $0.13 billion $3.88 billion
1989 116 8.0% 4.7% $0.27 billion $5.81 billion
1990 110 10.8% 8.1% $0.34 billion $4.27 billion
1991 286 11.9% 9.7% $1.50 billion $15.39 billion
1992 412 10.3% 8.0% $1.82 billion $22.69 billion
1993 510 12.7% 11.2% $3.52 billion $31.44 billion
1994 402 9.6% 8.3% $1.43 billion $17.18 billion
1995 462 21.4% 17.5% $4.90 billion $27.95 billion
1996 677 17.2% 16.1% $6.76 billion $42.05 billion
1997 474 14.0% 14.4% $4.56 billion $31.76 billion
1998 283 21.9% 15.6% $5.25 billion $37.11 billion
1999 476 71.2% 57.4% $37.11 billion $64.67 billion
2000 380 56.3% 45.8% $29.68 billion $64.80 billion
2001 80 14.0% 8.4% $2.97 billion $35.29 billion
2002 66 9.1% 5.1% $1.13 billion $22.03 billion
2003 63 11.7% 10.4% $1.00 billion $9.54 billion
2004 173 12.3% 12.4% $3.86 billion $31.19 billion
2005 159 10.3% 9.3% $2.64 billion $28.23 billion
2006 157 12.1% 13.0% $3.95 billion $30.48 billion
2007 159 14.0% 13.9% $4.95 billion $35.66 billion
2008 21 5.7% 24.7% $5.63 billion $22.76 billion
2009 41 9.8% 11.1% $1.46 billion $13.17 billion
2010 91 9.4% 6.2% $1.84 billion $29.82 billion
2011 81 13.9% 13.0% $3.51 billion $26.97 billion
2012 93 17.7% 8.9% $2.75 billion $31.11 billion
2013 158 20.9% 19.0% $7.89 billion $41.56 billion
2014 206 15.5% 12.8% $5.40 billion $42.20 billion
2015 118 19.2% 18.9% $4.16 billion $22.00 billion
2016 75 14.5% 14.2% $1.77 billion $12.52 billion
2017 106 12.9% 16.0% $3.68 billion $22.98 billion
2018 134 18.6% 19.1% $6.39 billion $33.47 billion
2019 112 23.5% 17.7% $6.93 billion $39.18 billion
2020 165 41.6% 47.9% $29.66 billion $61.87 billion
2021 311 32.1% 24.0% $28.65 billion $119.36 billion
1980-1989 2,047 7.2% 6.1% $3.30 billion $53.98 billion
1990-1998 3,616 14.8% 13.3% $30.08 billion $226.51 billion
1999-2000 856 64.6% 51.6% $66.79 billion $129.47 billion
2001-2021 2,569 18.5% 18.2% $130.22 billion $711.38 billion
1980-2021 9,088 18.9% 20.5% $230.39 billion $1,121.3 billion
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 Table 1a (updated Juen 4, 2022)
Mean First-day Returns and Money Left on the Table, 1980-2021
The market value includes the market value of all share classes using the post-issue no. of shares.
Mean First-day Return Aggregate Market value
Number Equal- Proceeds- Amount Left Aggregate at 1st closing
Year of IPOs weighted weighted on the Table Proceeds market price
1980 71 14.3% 20.0% $0.18 billion $0.91 billion $5.88 billion
1981 192 5.9% 5.7% $0.13 billion $2.31 billion $10.71 billion
1982 77 11.0% 13.3% $0.13 billion $1.00 billion $5.11 billion
1983 451 9.9% 9.4% $0.84 billion $8.89 billion $41.35 billion
1984 171 3.7% 2.5% $0.05 billion $2.02 billion $8.76 billion
1985 186 6.4% 5.3% $0.23 billion $4.09 billion $15.18 billion
1986 393 6.1% 5.1% $0.68 billion $13.40 billion $46.77 billion
1987 285 5.6% 5.7% $0.66 billion $11.68 billion $45.59 billion
1988 105 5.5% 3.4% $0.13 billion $3.88 billion $21.65 billion
1989 116 8.0% 4.7% $0.27 billion $5.81 billion $22.37 billion
1990 110 10.8% 8.1% $0.34 billion $4.27 billion $17.79 billion
1991 286 11.9% 9.7% $1.50 billion $15.35 billion $54.06 billion
1992 412 10.3% 8.0% $1.82 billion $22.69 billion $74.35 billion
1993 510 12.7% 11.2% $3.52 billion $31.44 billion $126 billion
1994 402 9.6% 8.3% $1.43 billion $17.18 billion $64 billion
1995 462 21.4% 17.5% $4.90 billion $27.95 billion $127 billion
1996 677 17.2% 16.1% $6.76 billion $42.05 billion $215 billion
1997 474 14.0% 14.4% $4.56 billion $31.76 billion $141 billion
1998 283 21.9% 15.6% $5.25 billion $33.66 billion $164 billion
1999 476 71.2% 57.4% $37.11 billion $64.67 billion $652 billion
2000 380 56.3% 45.8% $29.68 billion $64.80 billion $642 billion
2001 80 14.2% 8.4% $2.97 billion $35.29 billion $177 billion
2002 66 9.1% 5.1% $1.13 billion $22.03 billion $84 billion
2003 63 11.7% 10.4% $1.00 billion $9.54 billion $40 billion
2004 173 12.3% 12.4% $3.86 billion $31.19 billion $148 billion
2005 159 10.3% 9.3% $2.64 billion $28.23 billion $105 billion
2006 157 12.1% 13.0% $3.95 billion $30.48 billion $135 billion
2007 159 14.0% 13.9% $4.95 billion $35.66 billion $212 billion
2008 21 5.7% 24.8% $5.63 billion $22.76 billion $63 billion
2009 41 9.8% 11.1% $1.46 billion $13.17 billion $59 billion
2010 91 9.4% 6.2% $1.84 billion $29.82 billion $113 billion
2011 81 13.3% 13.0% $3.51 billion $26.97 billion $160 billion
2012 93 17.7% 8.9% $2.75 billion $31.11 billion $181 billion
2013 158 20.9% 19.0% $7.89 billion $41.57 billion $270 billion
2014 206 15.5% 12.8% $5.40 billion $42.20 billion $238 billion
2015 118 19.2% 18.7% $4.16 billion $22.00 billion $150 billion
2016 75 14.5% 14.4% $1.77 billion $12.52 billion $79 billion
2017 106 12.9% 16.0% $3.68 billion $22.98 billion $162 billion
2018 134 18.6% 19.1% $6.39 billion $33.47 billion $216 billion
2019 112 23.5% 17.7% $6.93 billion $39.18 billion $331 billion
2020 165 41.6% 47.9% $29.66 billion $61.87 billion $687 billion
2021 311 32.1% 24.0% $28.65 billion $119.36 billion $1,205 billion
1980-1989 2,047 7.2% 6.1% $3.30 billion $53.98 billion $223 billion
1990-1998 3,616 14.8% 13.3% $30.08 billion $226.51 billion $985 billion
1999-2000 856 64.6% 51.6% $66.79 billion $129.47 billion $1,294 billion
2001-2021 2,569 18.5% 18.2% $130.22 billion $711.38 billion $4,822 billion
1980-2021 9,088 18.9% 20.5% $230.39 billion $1,121.3 bn $7,324 billion

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 Table 2 (updated February 17, 2022)

Mean First-day Returns, Categorized by Sales, for IPOs from 1980-2021

Sales, measured in millions, are for the last twelve months prior to going public. All sales have been converted
into dollars of 2003 purchasing power, using the Consumers Price Index. From January 2003 to January 2021,
the CPI has increased by 43.9%, so $10 million in 2003 is equivalent to $14.39 million in 2021. There are 9,084
IPOs, after excluding IPOs with an offer price of less than $5.00 per share, units, REITs, SPACs, ADRs, closed-
end funds, banks and S&Ls, small best efforts offers, firms not listed on CRSP within six months of the offering,
and natural resource limited partnerships. Sales are from Thomson Financial’s SDC, Dealogic, EDGAR, and the
Graeme Howard-Todd Huxster collection of pre-EDGAR prospectuses. The average first-day return is 18.9%.

1980-1989 1990-1998 1999-2000 2001-2021

Return N Return N Return N Return N
0≤sales<$10m 10.3% 425 17.4% 742 68.7% 332 19.6% 660
$10m≤sales<$20m 8.6% 242 18.5% 393 81.4% 138 21.5% 106
$20m≤sales<$50m 7.8% 500 18.8% 789 75.5% 154 20.3% 271
$50m≤sales<$100m 6.3% 356 12.8% 590 62.9% 85 22.3% 357
$100m≤sales<$200m 5.1% 234 11.8% 454 35.8% 56 22.7% 316
$200m≤sales 3.4% 290 8.7% 646 25.0% 91 13.8% 859

All 7.2% 2,047 14.8% 3,614 64.6% 856 18.5% 2,569

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 Table 3 (updated February 16, 2022)
IPO Turnover Categorized by Decade and First-Day Return, 1983-2021
IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, closed-end funds, REITs, bank and S&L IPOs,
SPACs, natural resource limited partnerships, all foreign companies, and those with missing volume
numbers on CRSP (3 IPOs) are excluded. Turnover is defined as the maximum of the first three days’ CRSP
trading volume divided by the number of shares issued (not including the overallotment option). The highest
of these first three days is almost always the first day. For Nasdaq-listed IPOs, the trading volume is divided
by 2 for January1983-January 2001, by 1.8 for February 2001-December 2001, and by 1.6 for 2002-2003
to allow more meaningful comparisons with NYSE and Amex (now NYSE MKT)-listed IPOs. As explained
in Appendix B of Gao and Ritter’s 2010 Journal of Financial Economics article “The Marketing of
Seasoned Equity Offerings,” in 2001, Nasdaq changed its trade-reporting rules, and in 2002, institutions
changed the way they reported Nasdaq trades. IPOs before 1983 are not included because CRSP has volume
for very few of these stocks. For approximately 30 IPOs, the observation is deleted because the (adjusted)
turnover is less than 1%.
For Republic Airways Holding (20040526), the CRSP volume of 131,952 is replaced with Bigcharts volume of 1,203,600; for Nucryst
Pharmaceuticals (20051222), the CRSP volume of 49,056 is replaced with Bigcharts volume of 714,500; for Stevanto Group (20210716) the CRSP
volume of 49 is replaced with e BigCharts volume of 12,538,610. For BATS Global Markets (20160415), which is listed on BATS, Yahoo Finance
is the source of volume and long-run returns, and I have created a CRSP PERM of 12345 for it.

Panel A: Percentage of U.S. Operating Company IPOs with Turnover Greater Than 100%
Number Percentage with Percentage of
Time Period of IPOs Turnover>100% IPOs on Nasdaq
1983-1989 1,655 0.0% 87%
1990-1998 3,408 1.1% 84%
1999-2000 786 21.4% 91%
2001-2021 2,276 14.7% 67%
Total 8,125 6.6% 80%
Panel B: Average Turnover Categorized by First-Day Returns
Number Average First- Average
Return Categories of IPOs Day Returns Turnover

Return < 0% 2,276 -3.4% 30.7%

0% < Return < 10% 2,242 4.5% 31.8%
10% < Return < 60% 2,991 26.1% 52.3%
Return > 60% 616 124.7% 97.2%
Total 8,125 19.3% 44.0%
Panel C: Average Turnover Categorized by First-Day Returns & Decade
Return Categories 1983-1989 1990-1998 1999-2000 2001-2021

Return < 0% 14.8% 24.5% 51.9% 52.5%

0% < Return < 10% 18.1% 27.5% 52.4% 51.6%
10% < Return < 60% 21.6% 43.9% 69.9% 71.4%
Return > 60% 26.2% 77.2% 101.0% 114.2%

Total 17.6% 35.3% 75.5% 63.3%

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 Table 3b (updated February 17, 2022)

Mean First-day Turnover for NYSE and Nasdaq IPOs, 1983-2021

The sample is composed of the IPOs of U.S.-based companies with an offer price of at least $5.00
and listed on the NYSE (excluding NYSE American and NYSE MKT issues after the merger in
2008) or Nasdaq (excluding Nasdaq small cap issues before October 2005 and, after Sept. 2005,
Nasdaq capital market issues), excluding ADRs, unit offers, closed-end funds, REITs,
partnerships, banks and S&Ls, and stocks not listed on CRSP (CRSP includes Amex, NYSE, and
NASDAQ stocks). Turnover is volume divided by shares issued. Volume is the maximum of the
first three days, which is almost always the first day. For 2004-2021, first-day volume is used
unless the second day volume is more than five times the first-day volume. Shares issued excludes
over allotment options, but includes the global offering size. To adjust for institutional features of
the way that Nasdaq and NYSE-Amex volume are computed, we use the procedure discussed in
Appendix B of Xiaohui Gao and Jay Ritter’s 2010 Journal of Financial Economics article “The
Marketing of Seasoned Equity Offerings.” Prior to February 1, 2001, we divide Nasdaq volume
by 2.0. This accounts for the practice of counting as trades both trades with market makers and
trades among market makers. On February 1, 2001, a “riskless principal” rule went into effect, that
resulted in a reduction of approximately 10% in reported volume. Thus, for February 1, 2001 to
December 31, 2001, we divide Nasdaq volume by 1.8. During 2002, securities firms began to
charge institutional investors commissions on Nasdaq trades, rather than the prior practice of
merely marking up or down the net price, resulting in a further reduction in reported volume of
approximately 10%. Thus, for 2002 and 2003, we divide Nasdaq volume by 1.6. For 2004 and
later years, in which much of the volume of Nasdaq (and NYSE) stocks has been occurring on
crossing networks and other venues, we use a divisor of 1.0, reflecting the fact that there are no
longer important differences in the reporting of Nasdaq and NYSE volume. Approximately 30
IPOs with adjusted first-day turnover of less than 1% of the issue size are excluded.

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 Number of IPOs Unadjusted With Nasdaq Adjustment
Year Total NYSE Nasdaq Total NYSE Nasdaq Nasdaq Total
1983 429 11 418 23.4% 17.6% 23.5% 12.2% 12.1%
1984 156 8 148 22.1% 10.9% 22.6% 11.6% 11.5%
1985 166 8 158 31.9% 18.7% 32.5% 16.4% 16.4%
1986 355 28 327 37.7% 24.9% 38.6% 19.3% 20.0%
1987 243 26 217 41.5% 23.1% 43.2% 21.5% 22.3%
1988 75 14 61 44.8% 22.3% 49.3% 24.0% 24.8%
1989 96 18 78 53.8% 24.2% 59.4% 29.1% 29.6%
1990 90 15 75 63.8% 22.0% 70.9% 34.9% 34.3%
1991 257 43 214 67.9% 37.1% 72.8% 35.3% 37.5%
1992 352 67 285 61.0% 37.5% 66.5% 32.4% 34.0%
1993 439 65 374 67.6% 42.7% 70.6% 34.8% 37.5%
1994 334 47 287 55.7% 32.8% 59.4% 28.9% 30.2%
1995 382 47 335 77.5% 49.7% 81.3% 40.1% 41.9%
1996 575 76 499 74.3% 60.1% 76.5% 37.9% 41.1%
1997 374 69 305 65.4% 51.6% 68.5% 33.5% 37.6%
1998 223 50 173 92.7% 55.6% 103.5% 51.0% 52.6%
1999 435 39 396 162.1% 65.5% 170.8% 84.5% 84.4%
2000 323 22 301 136.5% 55.9% 142.3% 70.7% 70.3%
2001 72 25 47 90.4% 50.6% 107.1% 56.8% 58.6%
2002 60 25 35 73.1% 61.0% 81.0% 49.0% 55.4%
2003 57 15 42 77.0% 59.1% 83.3% 52.1% 53.9%
2004 157 40 117 60.6% 57.3% 61.7% 68.9% 60.6%
2005 131 44 87 60.4% 58.0% 61.6% 64.5% 60.4%
2006 133 37 96 62.5% 77.6% 56.6% 60.9% 62.5%
2007 134 37 97 58.1% 55.9% 58.9% 63.2% 58.1%
2008 18 7 11 54.9% 68.9% 46.0% 48.1% 54.9%
2009 38 20 18 70.1% 63.2% 77.9% 77.9% 70.1%
2010 79 40 39 55.0% 58.4% 51.4% 53.6% 55.0%
2011 69 31 38 74.6% 83.1% 67.7% 68.2% 74.6%
2012 83 42 41 79.0% 86.4% 71.4% 72.1% 79.0%
2013 133 60 73 74.5% 87.1% 64.2% 66.9% 74.5%
2014 163 67 97 71.8% 75.9% 68.9% 73.4% 71.8%
2015 98 33 65 78.1% 97.9% 68.1% 69.1% 78.1%
2016 62 19 43 66.5% 78.0% 61.4% 65.5% 66.5%
2017 86 34 52 56.5% 65.5% 50.6% 61.0% 56.5%
2018 112 32 80 50.3% 60.2% 46.3% 52.1% 50.3%
2019 96 23 73 52.4% 75.6% 45.0% 53.1% 52.4%
2020 134 22 112 64.4% 52.1% 66.8% 59.2% 64.4%
2021 244 64 180 59.2% 58.7% 59.4% 59.4% 59.2%
1983-2000 5,304 653 4,651 69.2% 40.1% 73.3% 36.8% 37.2%
2001-2003 189 65 124 78.4% 57.1% 89.4% 53.0% 54.4%
2004-2021 1,971 652 1,319 63.3% 69.4% 60.2% 60.2% 63.3%
Total 7,464 1,370 6,094 68.7% 52.8% 71.3% 38.7% 45.4%
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 Table 4 (updated May 18, 2022)

Median Age and Fraction of IPOs with VC and Buyout Backing, 1980-2021

There are 9,086 IPOs after excluding those with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers,
ADRs, closed-end funds, oil & gas limited partnerships, acquisition companies, REITs, bank and
S&L IPOs, and firms not listed on CRSP. Missing numbers are supplemented by direct inspection
of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from Dealogic for IPOs after 1991, Howard and Co.’s
Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-1985, the Graeme Howard-Todd Huxster collection
of IPO prospectuses for 1975-2006, and the Stanford GSB microfiche collection of registration
statements form the 1980s. Tech stocks are defined as internet-related stocks plus other technology
stocks, not including biotech. Loughran and Ritter (2004) list the SIC codes in their appendix 3
and sources of founding dates in appendix 1. Age is defined as the year of the IPO minus the year
of founding. For buyout-backed IPOs, the founding date of the predecessor company is used. For
rollups, the founding date of the oldest acquired company is used in most cases. Private equity
(PE) or buyout-backed IPOs were restricted to “reverse LBOs” in the 1980s and 1990s. Jerry Cao
has assisted with providing information on which IPOs are buyout-backed.

The financial backers of some companies are easy to classify, such as when Sequoia Capital and
Kleiner Perkins invested in Google, or when KKR invested in Dollar General. But other situations
involve growth capital investing, as when Warburg Pincus finances a company that rolls up some
doctors’ offices. With just two categories (VC and buyout), there is some arbitrariness in the
categorization of IPOs backed by growth capital investors. 449 growth capital-backed IPOs are
classified as VC-backed.

The last column gives the percentage of tech stocks that have VC backing.

The definition of technology stocks has been changed from that in Loughran and Ritter (2004
Financial Management), with SIC=3559, 3576, and 7389 added to tech. Some 7389 (business
services) companies have had their SIC codes changed into non-tech categories, such as consulting
and two new SIC codes: 5614 for telemarketing firms and 7388 for non-tech business services
such as Sotheby’s Auctions.

(table on the next page)

9
 Number Median VC-backed Buyout-backed Technology IPOs
Year of IPOs Age No. % No. % No. % VC-backed
1980 71 6 23 32% 1 1% 22 64%
1981 192 8 53 28% 1 1% 72 40%
1982 77 5 21 27% 2 3% 42 36%
1983 451 7 116 26% 12 3% 173 39%
1984 171 8 45 26% 3 2% 50 52%
1985 186 9 39 21% 18 10% 37 43%
1986 393 8 79 20% 42 11% 77 40%
1987 285 8 66 23% 41 14% 59 66%
1988 105 8 32 30% 9 9% 28 61%
1989 116 8 40 34% 10 9% 35 66%
1990 110 9 42 38% 13 12% 32 75%
1991 286 10 116 41% 72 25% 71 63%
1992 412 10 138 33% 98 24% 115 58%
1993 510 9 172 34% 79 15% 127 69%
1994 402 8.5 129 32% 22 5% 115 56%
1995 462 8 190 41% 30 6% 205 56%
1996 677 7 266 39% 34 5% 276 56%
1997 474 10 134 28% 38 8% 174 42%
1998 282 9 80 28% 30 11% 113 49%
1999 476 5 280 59% 30 6% 370 68%
2000 380 6 246 65% 32 8% 260 70%
2001 80 12 32 40% 21 26% 23 70%
2002 66 15 23 35% 20 30% 20 65%
2003 63 11 25 40% 21 33% 18 67%
2004 173 8 79 46% 43 25% 61 66%
2005 159 13 45 28% 68 43% 45 49%
2006 157 13 56 36% 67 43% 48 56%
2007 159 9 79 50% 30 19% 76 76%
2008 21 14 9 43% 3 14% 6 67%
2009 41 15 12 29% 19 46% 14 43%
2010 91 10 41 45% 26 29% 33 73%
2011 81 11 46 7 57% 17 1 21% 36 83%
2012 93 12 49 53% 28 30% 40 87%
2013 158 12 82 52% 36 23% 45 78%
2014 206 11 132 64% 38 18% 53 75%
2015 118 10 77 65% 21 18% 38 76%
2016 75 10 49 65% 13 17% 21 71%
2017 106 12 64 60% 18 17% 30 80%
2018 134 10 90 67% 15 11% 39 77%
2019 112 10 77 69% 11 10% 37 70%
2020 165 9 113 68% 22 13% 45 73%
2021 311 11 175 56% 67 22% 118 64%
1980-1989 2,047 8 514 25% 139 7% 595 47%
1990-1998 3,615 9 1,265 35% 415 11% 1,228 56%
1999-2000 856 5 523 61% 62 7% 630 68%
2001-2021 2,568 10 1,355 53% 604 24% 846 70%
1980-2021 9,086 9 3,657 40% 1,219 13% 3,299 60%

10
 Table 4a (updated May 18, 2022)

Technology Company IPOs, 1980-2021 including Direct Listings

There are 3,299 IPOs and 9 direct listings that are tech stocks, for a total of 3,308 listings, after
excluding those with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds,
natural resource limited partnerships (and most other LPs, but not buyout firms such as Carlyle
Group), acquisition companies, REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, and firms not listed on CRSP.
Missing and questionable numbers from the SDC new issues database are supplemented by direct
inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from Dealogic for IPOs after 1991, Howard
and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-1985, and the Graeme Howard-Todd
Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses for 1975-2006. Tech stocks are defined as internet-related
stocks plus other technology stocks including telecom, but not including biotech. Loughran and
Ritter (2004) list the SIC codes in their appendix 3 and sources of founding dates in appendix 1.
The definition of technology stocks has been changed from that in Loughran and Ritter (2004
Financial Management), with SIC=3559, 3576, 3844, and 7389 added to tech. Some 7389
(business services) companies have had their SIC codes changed into non-tech categories, such as
consulting and two new SIC codes that I have made up: 5614 for telemarketing firms and 7388 for
non-tech business services such as Sotheby’s Auctions. I have also added the S.E.C.’s computer
communications equipment code of 3576 for 21 companies, including Cisco Systems.

For the column with VC-backed IPOs, there are 3,469 IPOs including both technology and non-
technology companies.

For buyout-backed IPOs, the founding date of the predecessor company is used. Price-to-sales
ratios are computed using both the offer price (OP) and the first closing market price (MP) for
computing the market capitalization of equity. Market cap is calculated using the post-issue shares
outstanding, with all share classes included in the case of dual-class companies. The undiluted
number of shares is used, which is some cases (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Castlight Health)
understates the market cap due to the existence of substantial amounts of in-the-money employee
stock options that are highly likely to be exercised. Sales are the last twelve months (LTM)
revenues as reported in the prospectus. The median sales, in millions, is expressed in both nominal
dollars and in dollars of 2014 purchasing power using the CPI. The median age, in years, is the
number of years since the calendar year of the founding date and the calendar year of the IPO. The
percentage of IPOs that are profitable measures profitability using trailing LTM earnings (usually
using after extraordinary items earnings, and usually using pro forma numbers that are computed
assuming that any recent or concurrent mergers have already occurred, and the conversion of
convertible preferred stock into common stock). In some cases, last fiscal year earnings are used
when LTM earnings are unavailable.

Even concepts like market cap (for the price-to-sales ratios) become ambiguous when you realize
that companies like Facebook have many deep in-the-money options outstanding, so whether
you use the fully diluted number of shares or the undiluted number can affect the calculations
substantially for some companies.

(table on the next page)

11
 Number Median
of Tech Proceeds in $millions Price-to-sales Median sales, $mm Median %
Year IPOs VC-backed Technology OP MP Nominal $2014 age profitable
1980 22 388 378 3.4 3.8 16.2 48.8 6.5 91%
1981 72 648 838 3.5 3.6 12.9 34.8 9 88%
1982 42 490 648 4.2 4.5 10.5 26.2 5 83%
1983 173 2,798 3,271 5.9 6.6 8.6 20.6 6 71%
1984 50 614 551 2.4 2.5 9.8 22.4 6.5 80%
1985 37 667 375 2.3 2.4 13.4 29.7 7 84%
1986 77 1,558 1,217 3.4 3.6 13.0 27.8 6 74%
1987 59 1,315 1,330 3.2 3.2 17.8 37.4 5 86%
1988 28 674 888 3.0 3.4 24.0 48.5 5.5 79%
1989 35 869 748 3.4 4.0 31.5 60.9 6 77%
1990 32 1,085 764 3.6 4.0 28.6 52.5 8.5 94%
1991 71 3,887 2,760 3.2 3.6 34.6 60.0 9 75%
1992 115 4,970 5,875 3.5 3.7 22.4 38.0 8 65%
1993 127 5,929 5,715 3.0 3.6 27.0 44.3 8 74%
1994 115 3,691 3,583 3.7 4.2 21.0 33.7 9 70%
1995 205 7,165 9,786 4.6 5.8 21.4 33.3 8 71%
1996 276 11,681 16,256 6.8 8.2 16.7 25.2 7 47%
1997 174 5,016 7,479 5.2 5.7 21.2 31.1 8 50%
1998 113 4,037 8,118 8.8 11.9 22.1 32.0 7 36%
1999 370 22,298 33,512 26.5 43.0 12.1 17.2 4 14%
2000 260 23,598 42,442 31.7 49.5 12.0 16.6 5 14%
2001 23 2,658 5,773 8.1 13.4 24.6 32.9 9 30%
2002 20 1,956 2,587 2.9 3.1 95.2 125.8 9 40%
2003 18 1,824 2,242 4.1 4.6 86.2 111.0 7 39%
2004 61 7,183 9,064 6.4 7.1 55.5 70.1 8 44%
2005 45 3,458 6,993 4.5 4.5 68.0 83.5 9 36%
2006 48 4,860 4,873 5.5 6.3 57.6 67.9 9 50%
2007 76 10,566 12,572 6.5 7.8 71.2 79.8 8 30%
2008 6 863 1,194 4.9 5.7 156.7 173.6 14 67%
2009 14 1,697 4,126 3.0 3.6 174.3 193.1 11 71%
2010 33 4,038 4,347 3.4 3.9 119.5 129.0 11 64%
2011 36 8,764 9,412 6.1 6.6 141.3 150.1 10 36%
2012 40 21,096 20,887 4.5 5.0 113.4 117.1 9.5 43%
2013 45 11,935 8,662 5.3 6.1 105.8 107.5 9 27%
2014 53 18,542 9,965 6.1 6.8 90.5 90.5 11 17%
2015 38 9,890 10,087 5.3 6.2 130.8 130.9 11 26%
2016 21 6,181 2,510 4.2 4.3 109.5 108.2 10 29%
2017 30 11,269 7,844 5.0 6.3 188.4 181.5 13 17%
2018 40 16,706 12,246 7.6 11.3 182.1 171.8 12 15%
2019 38 27,534 22,881 8.1 10.6 205.8 191.3 11 29%
2020 47 41,423 32,616 13.6 21.8 211.2 191.7 12 20%
2021 123 72,300 58,383 15.2 17.8 207.7 185.8 12 22%
1980-2021 3,308 388,121 395,798 6.1 7.4 24.3 39.2 8 47%

12
 Table 4b (updated February 17, 2022)

Technology and Biotechnology (Biopharma) Company IPOs, 1980-2021

There are 3,299 tech and 1,007 biotech IPOs from 1980-2021, after excluding those with an offer
price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, partnerships, acquisition
companies, REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, and firms not listed on CRSP. Biotech includes
pharmaceutical firms.

Missing and questionable numbers from the SDC new issues database are supplemented by direct
inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from Dealogic for IPOs after 1991, Howard
and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-1985, and the Graeme Howard-Todd
Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses for 1975-2006. Tech stocks are defined as internet-related
stocks plus other technology stocks including telecom, but not including biotech. Loughran and
Ritter (2004) list the SIC codes in their appendix 3 and sources of founding dates in appendix 1.
The definition of technology stocks has been changed from that in Loughran and Ritter (2004
Financial Management), with SIC=3559, 3576, and 7389 added to tech. Some 7389 (business
services) companies have had their SIC codes changed into non-tech categories, such as consulting
and two new SIC codes that I created: 5614 for telemarketing firms and 7388 for non-tech business
services such as Sotheby’s Auctions. I have also added the S.E.C.’s computer communications
equipment code of 3576 for 21 companies, including Cisco Systems.

Biotech is defined as SIC=2830, 2833, 2834, 2835, 2836, and 8731.

Sales are the last twelve months (LTM) revenues as reported in the prospectus. The median sales,
in millions, are expressed in dollars of 2014 purchasing power using the CPI. Pro forma numbers
are usually used if there have been recent mergers or mergers that coincide with the IPO. The
percentage of IPOs that are profitable measures profitability using trailing LTM earnings (usually
using after extraordinary items earnings, and usually using pro forma numbers that are computed
assuming that any recent or concurrent mergers have already occurred, and the conversion of
convertible preferred stock into common stock). In some cases, last fiscal year earnings are used
when LTM earnings are unavailable.

(table on the next page)

13
 Number of IPOs % Profitable Median sales ($2014, millions)
Year Tech Biotech Other Tech Biotech Other Tech Biotech Other
1980 22 3 46 91% 67% 70% 48.8 17.1 64.4
1981 72 10 110 88% 30% 85% 34.8 4.1 36.1
1982 42 2 33 83% 50% 79% 26.2 3.3 24.9
1983 173 21 257 71% 43% 86% 20.6 6.1 73.9
1984 50 2 119 80% 100% 85% 22.4 113.4 57.9
1985 37 5 144 84% 40% 87% 29.7 10.4 88.5
1986 77 25 291 74% 32% 84% 27.8 9.0 79.2
1987 59 11 215 86% 18% 85% 37.4 5.9 92.6
1988 28 2 75 79% 0% 85% 48.5 8.2 191.1
1989 35 4 77 77% 0% 82% 60.9 2.2 101.7
1990 32 4 74 94% 0% 87% 52.5 3.8 107.3
1991 71 33 182 75% 15% 88% 60.2 5.7 129.1
1992 115 33 264 65% 18% 80% 38.0 2.2 118.1
1993 127 28 355 74% 21% 75% 44.3 2.6 100.7
1994 115 20 267 70% 20% 80% 33.6 2.6 89.1
1995 205 22 235 71% 14% 75% 33.3 4.2 98.9
1996 276 47 354 47% 17% 73% 25.2 3.9 82.7
1997 174 22 278 50% 14% 77% 31.1 8.2 93.0
1998 113 12 156 36% 42% 69% 32.0 18.9 104.1
1999 370 11 95 14% 27% 63% 17.2 16.9 162.9
2000 260 56 64 14% 11% 50% 16.6 5.5 164.9
2001 23 6 51 30% 0% 66% 32.9 0.2 475.3
2002 20 5 41 40% 40% 63% 125.8 189.7 569.9
2003 18 8 37 39% 0% 76% 111.0 0.1 519.1
2004 61 30 82 44% 7% 70% 70.1 4.4 250.2
2005 45 16 98 36% 13% 70% 83.5 15.2 266.3
2006 48 24 85 50% 8% 80% 67.9 4.0 393.3
2007 76 19 64 30% 5% 73% 79.8 1.6 268.8
2008 6 1 14 67% 0% 57% 173.6 0.3 223.6
2009 14 3 24 71% 67% 71% 193.1 41.7 498.2
2010 33 11 47 64% 0% 70% 129.0 0.0 348.6
2011 36 8 37 36% 0% 59% 150.1 3.3 343.4
2012 40 10 43 43% 0% 77% 117.1 0.5 353.3
2013 45 41 72 27% 10% 58% 107.5 10.9 432.1
2014 53 74 79 17% 7% 57% 90.5 0.0 271.0
2015 38 42 38 26% 0% 66% 130.9 0.0 171.3
2016 21 25 29 29% 8% 59% 108.2 0.9 645.4
2017 30 32 44 17% 0% 42% 181.5 0.0 429.5
2018 39 58 37 15% 0% 51% 169.1 0.0 445.7
2019 37 48 27 30% 2% 50% 182.8 0.0 149.1
2020 45 77 44 22% 5% 47% 183.0 0.0 246.2
2021 118 96 97 22% 3% 49% 177.8 0.0 293.0
2001-21 846 634 1,090 32% 5% 63% 113.7 0.0 330.6
1980-2021 3,299 1,007 4,781 47% 12% 75% 39.1 1.6 114.0
14
 Table 4c (February 16, 2022)

VC-backed, Growth Capital-backed, and Buyout-backed IPOs, 1980-2021

There are 9,086 IPOs after excluding those with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers,
ADRs, closed-end funds, natural resource limited partnerships, special purpose acquisition
companies (SPACs), REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, small best efforts offerings, and firms not listed
on CRSP within six months of the IPO. Missing numbers in the Thomson Reuters new issues
database are found by direct inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from Dealogic
for IPOs after 1989, Howard and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-1985, and the
Graeme Howard-Todd Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses for 1975-1996. Some foreign
company IPOs from 1997-2001 that did not use ADRs but did not file electronically, and therefore
do not have a prospectus available on EDGAR, were also accessed from the Graeme Howard-
Todd Huxster database. Additional information was collected from microfiches at Stanford’s GSB
library. Tech stocks are defined as internet-related stocks plus other technology stocks including
telecom, but not including biotech. Loughran and Ritter (2004) list the SIC codes in their appendix
3 and sources of founding dates in appendix 1, and I have slightly updated the classifications.

Growth capital-backed IPOs are IPOs with a financial sponsor that, unlike a buyout-sponsored
deal, typically owns far less than 90% of the equity prior to the IPO. Furthermore, many growth
capital-backed IPOs have debt in their capital structure. The main criteria for classifying a financial
sponsor as growth capital rather than venture capital is whether the company is investing in
tangible assets (e.g., stores or hospitals) or intangibles (e.g., R&D); this is highly correlated with
the industry of the company: restaurants, retail operations such as clothing store chains, healthcare
operations (doctors’ offices and dental offices), and retirement homes are generally classified as
growth capital-backed. Many growth capital-backed IPOs are involved in rollups of a fragmented
industry, where the financial sponsor has provided capital to make acquisitions to consolidate a
fragmented industry, such as funeral homes. If a company is growing via acquisitions, it would
generally be categorized as growth capital-backed rather than venture-backed. Jerry Cao has
provided some information on which IPOs are buyout-backed. 449 growth capital-backed IPOs
are not classified as VC-backed in this table. See my article “Growth Capital-backed IPOs” in The
Financial Review (November 2015) for further details.

(table on the next page)

15
 Financial sponsor- Growth capital-
Number of backed VC-backed backed Buyout-backed
Year IPOs No. % No. % No. % No. %

1980 71 24 34% 20 28% 3 4% 1 1%

1981 192 54 28% 44 23% 9 5% 1 1%
1982 77 23 30% 19 25% 2 3% 2 3%
1983 451 128 28% 104 23% 12 3% 12 3%
1984 171 48 28% 38 22% 7 4% 3 2%
1985 186 57 31% 28 15% 11 6% 18 10%
1986 393 121 31% 72 18% 7 2% 42 11%
1987 285 107 38% 61 21% 5 2% 41 14%
1988 105 41 39% 25 24% 7 7% 9 9%
1989 116 50 43% 30 26% 10 9% 10 9%
1990 110 55 50% 37 34% 5 5% 13 12%
1991 286 187 65% 97 34% 19 7% 71 25%
1992 412 236 57% 119 29% 19 5% 98 24%
1993 510 251 49% 160 31% 12 2% 79 15%
1994 402 151 38% 113 28% 16 4% 22 5%
1995 462 220 48% 160 35% 30 6% 30 6%
1996 677 300 44% 221 33% 45 7% 34 5%
1997 474 172 36% 103 22% 31 7% 38 8%
1998 282 110 39% 61 22% 19 7% 30 11%
1999 476 310 65% 264 55% 16 3% 30 6%
2000 380 278 73% 243 64% 3 1% 32 8%
2001 80 53 66% 22 28% 10 13% 21 26%
2002 66 43 65% 11 17% 12 18% 20 30%
2003 63 46 73% 21 33% 4 6% 21 33%
2004 173 122 71% 73 42% 6 3% 43 25%
2005 159 113 71% 40 25% 5 3% 68 43%
2006 157 123 78% 54 34% 2 1% 67 43%
2007 159 109 69% 71 45% 8 5% 30 19%
2008 21 12 57% 7 33% 2 10% 3 14%
2009 41 31 76% 12 29% 0 0% 19 46%
2010 91 67 74% 38 42% 3 3% 26 29%
2011 81 63 78% 42 52% 4 5% 17 21%
2012 93 77 83% 46 49% 3 3% 28 30%
2013 158 118 75% 70 44% 12 8% 36 23%
2014 206 170 83% 115 56% 17 8% 38 18%
2015 118 98 83% 69 58% 8 7% 21 18%
2016 75 62 83% 38 51% 11 15% 13 17%
2017 106 82 77% 55 52% 9 8% 18 17%
2018 134 105 78% 81 60% 9 7% 15 11%
2019 112 88 79% 74 66% 3 3% 11 10%
2020 165 135 82% 99 60% 14 8% 22 13%
2021 311 242 78% 156 50% 19 6% 67 22%

1980-1989 2,047 653 32% 441 21% 73 4% 139 7%

1990-1998 3,615 1,680 46% 1,071 30% 196 5% 415 11%
1999-2000 856 585 68% 507 58% 19 2% 62 7%
2001-2021 2,568 1,959 76% 1,194 46% 161 6% 604 24%

1980-2021 9,086 4,872 54% 3,213 35% 449 5% 1,220 13%

16
 Table 4d (updated February 17, 2022)

VC-backed IPOs, U.S.-headquartered Companies Only, 1980-2021

There are 3,509 venture capital-backed IPOs of U.S. headquartered companies, after excluding
those with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, natural
resource limited partnerships (and most other LPs, but not buyout firms such as Carlyle Group),
acquisition companies, REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, and firms not listed on CRSP. VC-backed
includes growth capital-backed IPOs. Missing and questionable numbers from the SDC new issues
database are supplemented by direct inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from
Dealogic for IPOs after 1991, Howard and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-
1985, and the Graeme Howard-Todd Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses for 1975-1996.

The public float is calculated as the shares issued multiplied by the first closing market price, and
does not include overallotment shares. All numbers use the undiluted number of shares
outstanding. For dual-class companies such as Facebook, all share classes are included, with the
assumption that the price per share is the same for each class.

Even concepts like market cap (for the price-to-sales ratios) become ambiguous when you realize
that companies like Facebook have many deep in-the-money options outstanding, so whether you
use the fully diluted number of shares or the undiluted number can affect the calculations
substantially for some companies.

Example: For 1980, the 23 VC-backed IPOs raised $388 million, the shares of which had a market
cap of $500 million using the first closing market price. The market cap, using all shares
outstanding, was $3.374 billion in total. Of this, Apple Computer issued 4.6 million shares at $22
per share (proceeds of $101.2 million), closing at $28.75 per share (public float value of $132.25
million), with 55.136 million shares outstanding ($1,585 million market cap).

(table on the next page)

17
 U.S.-headquartered VC-backed IPOs At first market price, $millions
Year Number Proceeds in $millions Public float Market cap
1980 23 388 500 3,374
1981 53 648 718 3,535
1982 21 490 575 2,640
1983 115 2,740 3,088 14,199
1984 44 605 626 2,936
1985 38 660 682 2,751
1986 79 1,559 1,671 7,081
1987 66 1,315 1,446 5,921
1988 31 658 709 3,039
1989 39 843 941 3,611
1990 41 1,057 1,177 4,925
1991 114 3,765 4,339 16,079
1992 137 4,933 5,561 18,529
1993 169 5,827 6,866 24,931
1994 126 3,528 4,011 14,023
1995 188 7,114 9,298 35,726
1996 259 11,137 13,465 57,203
1997 132 4,900 5,937 26,917
1998 79 4,005 5,050 23,725
1999 278 22,187 46,532 318,588
2000 228 21,924 40,748 290,153
2001 30 2,406 2,895 15,825
2002 23 1,956 2,216 10,563
2003 25 1,824 2,150 8,556
2004 76 7,042 8,306 54,443
2005 41 3,110 3,759 14,986
2006 54 4,436 5,214 22,609
2007 76 10,386 13,238 74,343
2008 9 863 936 4,428
2009 12 1,697 2,057 8,302
2010 38 3,791 4,345 20,433
2011 43 6,601 7,941 62,870
2012 49 21,096 22,959 125,886
2013 76 11,048 14,991 93,290
2014 116 16,108 19,830 98,786
2015 68 8,552 11,147 58,500
2016 45 4,929 6,135 32,607
2017 55 10,017 12,586 76,296
2018 83 13,473 16,883 105,418
2019 71 25,149 28,913 227,548
2020 106 38,773 63,652 483,159
2021 153 60,144 75,435 613,775
1980-2021 3,509 353,685 479,530 3,092,509

18
 Table 4e (MV not adjusted for inflation) Tech IPOs, 1980-2021
No. of Proceeds, Number Market value, at first market price, $millions
Year Tech IPOs $millions doubling Total Mean Median
1980 22 378 0 $3,054 $139 $64
1981 72 838 0 $4,509 $63 $42
1982 42 648 0 $3,360 $80 $30
1983 173 3,271 2 $17,288 $100 $45
1984 50 551 1 $2,674 $53 $30
1985 37 375 0 $1,595 $43 $29
1986 77 1,217 0 $6,163 $80 $45
1987 59 1,330 0 $7,630 $129 $58
1988 28 888 0 $5,464 $195 $102
1989 35 748 0 $3,661 $105 $65
1990 32 764 0 $3,661 $114 $83
1991 71 2,760 0 $11,912 $168 $123
1992 115 5,875 1 $21,928 $191 $102
1993 127 5,715 1 $30,331 $239 $86
1994 115 3,583 1 $16,653 $145 $80
1995 205 9,786 11 $50,090 $244 $139
1996 276 16,256 5 $98,775 $358 $138
1997 174 7,479 2 $45,962 $264 $113
1998 113 8,118 12 $64,221 $568 $234
1999 370 33,512 114 $449,091 $1,214 $493
2000 260 42,442 69 $516,963 $1,988 $702
2001 23 5,773 0 $27,365 $1,190 $367
2002 20 2,587 0 $12,340 $617 $339
2003 18 2,242 0 $9,340 $519 $422
2004 61 9,064 0 $59,399 $974 $325
2005 45 6,994 0 $26,149 $581 $307
2006 48 4,873 0 $23,820 $496 $352
2007 76 12,572 0 $89,729 $1,181 $560
2008 6 1,194 0 $5,756 $959 $813
2009 14 4,126 0 $16,311 $1,165 $646
2010 33 4,347 0 $24,833 $753 $548
2011 36 9,412 1 $83,415 $2,317 $824
2012 40 20,887 1 $125,817 $3,145 $686
2013 45 8,662 1 $76,923 $1,709 $812
2014 53 9,965 2 $84,160 $1,563 $780
2015 38 10,087 0 $74,811 $1,969 $815
2016 21 2,510 1 $23,056 $1,098 $841
2017 30 7,844 0 $64,715 $2,157 $1,129
2018 39 12,246 1 $103,988 $2,419 $1,959
2019 37 22,881 0 $223,971 $6,053 $2,176
2020 45 29,234 12 $454,763 $10,336 $4,319
2021 118 59,000 6 $743,018 $6,297 $3,045
1980-2021 3,299 393,033 244 $3,718,109 $1,127 $213

19
 Table 4f (adjusted for inflation, 2017 $) IPOs, 1980-2021 (tr is trillions)
No. of Proceeds, $millions Market value, at first close, $millions
Year IPOs Total Mean Median Total Mean Median
1980 71 $2,826 $40 $28 $18,338 $258 $105
1981 192 $6,433 $34 $23 $29,873 $156 $100
1982 77 $2,571 $33 $18 $13,159 $171 $86
1983 451 $22,070 $49 $29 $102,669 $228 $119
1984 171 $4,815 $28 $20 $20,862 $122 $69
1985 186 $9,414 $51 $25 $34,933 $188 $88
1986 393 $29,683 $76 $27 $103,595 $264 $99
1987 285 $25,507 $89 $33 $99,532 $349 $126
1988 105 $8,145 $78 $35 $45,432 $433 $160
1989 116 $11,645 $100 $43 $44,859 $387 $156
1990 110 $8,145 $74 $46 $33,914 $308 $166
1991 286 $27,756 $97 $52 $97,515 $341 $183
1992 412 $39,896 $97 $48 $130,761 $317 $169
1993 510 $53,526 $105 $48 $214,297 $420 $158
1994 402 $28,523 $71 $40 $105,742 $263 $125
1995 462 $45,152 $98 $52 $205,504 $445 $204
1996 677 $66,117 $98 $53 $377,944 $499 $201
1997 474 $48,460 $102 $51 $215,578 $455 $189
1998 281 $50,565 $180 $64 $246,201 $876 $285
1999 476 $95,547 $201 $91 $962,891 $2,023 $702
2000 380 $93,235 $245 $112 $924,452 $2,433 $816
2001 80 $48,945 $612 $162 $245,564 $3,070 $655
2002 66 $30,188 $457 $162 $114,629 $1,737 $714
2003 63 $12,745 $202 $154 $53,828 $854 $499
2004 173 $40,885 $236 $110 $194,092 $1,122 $448
2005 159 $35,949 $226 $147 $133,221 $838 $442
2006 157 $37,330 $238 $128 $165,163 $1,052 $450
2007 159 $41,442 $261 $125 $246,042 $1,547 $581
2008 21 $26,175 $1,246 $166 $72,691 $3,461 $542
2009 41 $15,150 $370 $178 $68,123 $1,662 $792
2010 91 $33,406 $367 $121 $126,816 $1,394 $482
2011 81 $29,732 $367 $167 $175,925 $2,172 $951
2012 93 $33,341 $359 $102 $193,803 $2,085 $641
2013 158 $40,842 $260 $122 $284,858 $1,803 $727
2014 206 $43,782 $213 $97 $246,739 $1,198 $445
2015 118 $22,849 $194 $106 $155,641 $1,319 $556
2016 75 $12,835 $171 $97 $80,840 $1,078 $521
2017 106 $22,979 $215 $120 $161,650 $1,525 $648
2018 134 $32,766 $245 $117 $211,090 $1,575 $613
2019 112 $37,800 $337 $121 $319,738 $2,855 $736
2020 165 $58,245 $353 $188 $646,252 $3,917 $1,038
2021 311 $111,809 $356 $186 $1,118,222 $3,596 $1,325
80-21 9,086 $1.451 tr $160 $63 $9.012 tr $992 $258

20
 Table 4g (updated February 17, 2022)

Biotechnology (Biopharma) Company IPOs, 1980-2021

IR is the initial return (underpricing), measured as the equally weighted average of the first-day
return from the offer price to close. There are 1,007 biotech IPOs from 1980-2021, after excluding
those with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, partnerships,
special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, and firms not listed
on CRSP. Missing and questionable numbers from the SDC new issues database are supplemented
by direct inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, information from Dealogic for IPOs after 1991,
Howard and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO Reporter from 1980-1985, and the Graeme Howard-
Todd Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses for 1975-2006.

Biotech includes pharmaceutical firms. Biotech is defined as SIC=2830, 2833, 2834, 2835, 2836,
and 8731.

Sales are the last twelve months (LTM) revenues as reported in the prospectus. The median sales,
in millions, are expressed in dollars of 2014 purchasing power using the CPI. Pro forma numbers
are usually used if there have been recent mergers or mergers that coincide with the IPO. The
percentage of IPOs that are profitable measures profitability using trailing LTM earnings (usually
using after extraordinary items earnings, and usually using pro forma numbers that are computed
assuming that any recent or concurrent mergers have already occurred, and the conversion of
convertible preferred stock into common stock). In some cases, last fiscal year earnings are used
when LTM earnings are unavailable. EPS is earnings per share. Age is the median age in years,
defined as the calendar year of the IPO minus the calendar year of founding.

Many of the biotech companies with positive sales have research contracts producing revenue,
rather than product sales.

(table on the next page)

21
 Number of IPOs Biotech Biotech IPOs Biotech sales ($2014, millions)
Year Total Biotech IR,% EPS>0 Age # zero % zero Median
1980 71 3 44.3% 67% 4 0 0.0% 17.1
1981 192 10 14.1% 30% 4.5 2 20.0% 4.1
1982 77 2 16.0% 50% 2 0 0.0% 3.3
1983 451 21 6.2% 43% 3 1 4.8% 6.1
1984 171 2 0.0% 100% 16 0 0.0% 113.4
1985 186 5 2.4% 40% 3 1 20.0% 10.4
1986 393 25 10.1% 32% 5 0 0.0% 9.0
1987 285 11 6.0% 18% 4 0 0.0% 5.9
1988 105 2 -1.6% 0% 9 1 50.0% 8.2
1989 116 4 3.8% 0% 6 0 0.0% 2.2
1990 110 4 0.8% 0% 4 2 50.0% 3.8
1991 286 33 12.6% 15% 4 3 9.1% 5.7
1992 412 33 9.9% 18% 5 6 18.2% 2.2
1993 510 28 7.4% 21% 5 3 10.7% 2.6
1994 402 20 3.4% 20% 7.5 3 20.0% 2.6
1995 462 22 6.7% 14% 5 5 22.7% 4.2
1996 677 47 11.4% 17% 4 7 14.9% 3.9
1997 474 22 8.3% 14% 6 3 13.6% 8.2
1998 281 12 7.1% 42% 7 0 0.0% 18.9
1999 476 11 30.5% 27% 8 1 9.1% 16.9
2000 380 56 33.4% 11% 6 11 19.6% 5.5
2001 80 6 9.6% 0% 5 3 50.0% 0.2
2002 66 5 -4.9% 40% 9 0 0.0% 189.7
2003 63 8 2.6% 0% 6 4 62.5% 0.1
2004 173 30 7.8% 7% 7 6 20.0% 4.4
2005 159 16 8.0% 13% 6 1 6.3% 15.2
2006 157 24 4.2% 8% 8 4 16.7% 4.0
2007 159 19 2.2% 5% 8 8 42.1% 1.6
2008 21 1 -5.7% 0% 9 0 0.0% 0.3
2009 41 3 1.3% 67% 14 0 0.0% 41.7
2010 91 11 0.9% 0% 6 6 54.5% 0.0
2011 81 8 6.4% 0% 5.5 3 37.5% 3.3
2012 93 10 7.8% 0% 7 5 50.0% 0.5
2013 158 41 19.5% 10% 10 12 29.3% 10.9
2014 206 74 13.3% 7% 9 40 54.1% 0.0
2015 118 42 22.9% 0% 6.5 27 64.3% 0.0
2016 75 25 7.0% 8% 6 8 32.0% 0.9
2017 106 32 7.0% 0% 6.5 23 71.9% 0.0
2018 134 58 14.2% 0% 4 37 63.8% 0.0
2019 112 48 20.2% 2% 5 34 70.8% 0.0
2020 165 77 36.9% 5% 6 49 63.6% 0.0
2021 311 96 24.1% 3% 5 60 63.2% 0.0

2001-21 2,567 634 17.0% 5% 7 326 51.5% 0.0

1980-2021 9,086 1,007 15.7% 12% 6 379 37.3% 1.6

22
 Table 4h (updated May 18, 2022)
Technology Company IPO Underpricing, 1980-2021
Underpricing is measured as the equally weighted average of the first-day return from the offer
price to close. The screens described in Table 1 apply, including the exclusion of ADRs.
Number of IPOs EW mean 1st-day Return,%
Year Total Tech NonTech Total Tech NonTech
1980 71 22 49 14.3% 21.7% 10.9%
1981 192 72 120 5.9% 7.0% 5.2%
1982 77 42 35 11.0% 13.6% 7.9%
1983 451 173 278 9.9% 13.9% 7.5%
1984 171 50 121 3.7% 5.5% 2.9%
1985 186 37 149 6.4% 6.1% 6.5%
1986 393 77 316 6.1% 7.2% 5.9%
1987 285 59 226 5.6% 7.3% 5.2%
1988 105 28 77 5.5% 5.5% 5.5%
1989 116 35 81 8.0% 11.9% 6.3%
1990 110 32 78 10.8% 14.9% 9.1%
1991 286 71 215 11.9% 17.3% 10.1%
1992 412 115 297 10.3% 14.4% 8.7%
1993 510 127 383 12.7% 17.8% 11.1%
1994 402 115 287 9.6% 14.1% 7.8%
1995 462 205 257 21.4% 30.8% 14.0%
1996 677 276 401 17.2% 20.2% 15.2%
1997 474 174 300 14.0% 16.9% 12.4%
1998 281 113 168 21.9% 39.1% 10.3%
1999 476 370 106 71.2% 86.7% 17.2%
2000 380 260 120 56.3% 68.8% 29.4%
2001 80 23 57 14.0% 23.5% 10.2%
2002 66 20 46 9.1% 8.6% 9.3%
2003 63 18 45 11.7% 17.4% 9.5%
2004 173 61 112 12.3% 16.6% 10.0%
2005 159 45 114 10.3% 10.8% 10.1%
2006 157 48 109 12.1% 15.3% 10.8%
2007 159 76 83 14.0% 18.8% 9.6%
2008 21 6 15 5.7% 2.6% 7.0%
2009 41 14 27 9.8% 16.9% 6.2%
2010 91 33 58 9.4% 15.5% 5.9%
2011 81 36 45 13.9% 20.2% 9.0%
2012 93 40 53 17.7% 23.4% 13.3%
2013 158 45 113 20.9% 26.7% 18.5%
2014 206 53 153 15.5% 25.0% 12.2%
2015 118 38 80 19.2% 18.8% 19.4%
2016 75 21 54 14.5% 32.4% 7.5%
2017 106 30 76 12.9% 21.1% 9.6%
2018 134 39 95 18.6% 32.3% 13.0%
2019 112 37 75 23.5% 28.6% 21.0%
2020 165 45 120 41.6% 62.6% 33.9%
2021 311 118 193 32.1% 33.2% 31.5%
1980-2021 9,086 3,299 5,688 18.9% 31.3% 11.8%
23
 Table 5
Number of U. S. IPOs (excluding ADRs) with an offer price of greater than $5.00
that doubled (offer to close) in price on the first day of trading, 1997-2020
A listing of each IPO since 1980 that doubled on the first day can be found elsewhere on Jay Ritter’s IPO Data page.
Quarter Number Quarter Number
1997, first 0 2007, first 0
1997, second 2 2007, second 0
1997, third 0 2007, third 0
1997, fourth 0 2007, fourth 0
1998, first 0 2008, first 0
1998, second 2 2008, second 0
1998, third 3 2008, third 0
1998, fourth 7 2008, fourth 0
1999, first 19 2009, first 0
1999, second 24 2009, second 0
1999, third 27 2009, third 0
1999, fourth 45 2009, fourth 0
2000, first 48 2010, first 0
2000, second 9 2010, second 0
2000, third 20 2010, third 0
2000, fourth (Transmeta) 1 2010, fourth (Youku.com ADR) 0
2001, first 0 2011, first (Qihoo 360 ADR) 0
2001, second 0 2011, second (LinkedIn) 1
2001, third 0 2011, third (China Mobile Games ADR) 0
2001, fourth 0 2011, fourth 0
2002, first 0 2012, first 0
2002, second 0 2012, second (Splunk) 1
2002, third 0 2012, third 0
2002, fourth 0 2012, fourth 0
2003, first 0 2013, first 0
2003, second 0 2013, second (Noodles & Co.) 1
2003, third 0 2013, third (Sprout, Benefitfocus) 2
2003, fourth 0 2013, fourth (Potbelly, Container Store) 2
2004, first 0 2014, first 4
2004, second (Jed Oil) 1 2014, second 0
2004, third 0 2014, third 1 (ReWalk Robotics) 1
2004, fourth 0 2014, fourth 1(Habit Restaurants) 1
2005, first 0 2015, first (Spark Therapeutics, Shake Shack) 2
2005, second 0 2015, second (Aduro Biotech, Seres Therapeutics)2
2005, third (Baidu.com is ADR) 0 2015, third (Global Blood Theraperutics) 1
2005, fourth 0 2015, fourth 0
2006, first (Chipotle Mexican) 1 2016, first 0
2006, second 0 2016, second 0
2006, third 0 2016, third 1 (Nutanix)
2006, fourth (Nymex Holdings) 1 2016, fourth 0

24
 Table 5 (continued)

Number of U. S. IPOs (excluding ADRs) with an offer price of greater than $5.00
that doubled (offer to close) in price on the first day of trading, 1997-2021

The count does not include ADRs, penny stocks, and units.

2017, first 0
2017, second 0
2017, third 0
2017, fourth (Reto Eco-Solutions) 1
2018, first (Zscalar) 1
2018, second 0
2018, third 0
2018, fourth 0
2019, first 0
2019, second (Beyond Meat, ADPT) 2
2019, third 0
2019, fourth (Monopar Therapeutics)1
2020, first 1
2020, second 2
2020, third 10
2020, fourth 9
2021, first 5
2021, second 5
2021, third 4
2021, fourth 4

25
 Table 6 (updated February 17, 2022)
Number of Initial Public Offerings, First-Day Return, and
Revisions from the File Price Range by Cohort Year, 1990-2021

Percentage Percentage Percentage Percentage

Cohort Number First-day of IPOs with of IPOs in the of IPOs with
Year of IPOs Return OP < Lo Middle OP > Hi
1990 97 9.4 24.7 52.6 22.7
1991 262 11.2 19.8 55.3 24.4
1992 363 9.9 38.0 40.5 21.5
1993 461 11.6 21.3 54.0 24.7
1994 334 8.4 37.7 49.7 12.6
1995 390 19.9 19.7 45.4 34.9
1996 600 15.9 25.0 50.2 24.8
1997 421 13.8 29.9 45.8 24.2
1998 284 21.4 27.5 50.0 22.5
1999 465 70.5 14.8 37.2 48.0
2000 371 57.1 22.1 39.4 38.5
2001 78 14.2 25.6 56.4 18.0
2002 67 8.7 32.8 53.7 13.4
2003 65 12.4 15.4 55.4 29.2
2004 172 12.3 37.2 41.9 20.9
2005 161 10.1 34.2 42.9 23.0
2006 155 11.7 39.4 40.6 20.0
2007 155 14.5 32.3 41.3 26.5
2008 21 5.7 47.6 38.1 14.3
2009 42 10.8 33.3 40.5 26.2
2010 97 9.4 48.5 39.2 12.4
2011 81 14.1 37.0 30.9 32.1
2012 100 17.6 42.0 33.0 25.0
2013 161 20.5 29.8 42.2 28.0
2014 218 14.3 44.0 39.0 17.0
2015 123 18.9 35.8 38.2 26.0
2016 75 14.4 33.3 57.3 9.3
2017 111 11.8 23.4 60.4 16.2
2018 136 18.4 16.9 61.8 21.3
2019 113 23.3 15.9 57.5 26.5
2020 153 42.4 7.2 50.3 42.5
2021 293 24.8 18.1 56.3 25.6
1990-2021 6,625 21.6 27.0 46.8 26.2
Banks and S&Ls are included in this table, which excludes IPOs with a midpoint of the original file price
range of less than $8.00, as well as unit offers, small best efforts offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, REITs,
partnerships, acquisition companies (SIC=6779), and stocks not listed on CRSP (CRSP includes firms listed
on the NYSE, Amex (now NYSE MKT) and NYSE Arca, and NASDAQ). If a $5.00 offer price screen was
used instead of the $8.00 midpoint screen, the sample size would increase by, for example, 20 IPOs in 1999
and 13 in 2000. Lo and Hi are the minimum and maximum of the original file price range. Because the
average first-day return is lower on the firms that are added than on those that are deleted, the 10.1% average
first-day return in 2005 is less than the 10.3% reported in other tables, such as Table 1.

26
 Table 7 (updated February 17, 2022)

Percentage of IPOs relative to file price range:

Below Within Above

1980-1989 30% 57% 13%
1990-1998 27% 49% 24%
1999-2000 18% 38% 44%
2001-2019 33% 45% 22%
2020-2021 14% 55% 31%

1980-2021 28% 49% 23%

Average first-day returns relative to file price range:

Below Within Above

1980-1989 0% 6% 20%
1990-1998 4% 11% 31%
1999-2000 8% 26% 122%
2001-2019 3% 12% 38%
2020-2021 6% 24% 54%

1980-2021 3% 12% 50%

The sample used in this table is described in Table 6.

27
 Table 8 (updated February 21, 2022)

Number of Offerings, Average First-day Returns, and

Gross Proceeds of Initial Public Offerings in 1960-2021

Data from 1960-1974 is taken from Table 1 of Roger Ibbotson, Jody Sindelar, and Jay R. Ritter’s 1994
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance article “The Market’s Problems with the Pricing of Initial Public
Offerings” Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 1994), pp. 66-74. Data from 1975-2021 are compiled by Jay R. Ritter
using Thomson Financial, Dealogic, IPOScoop.com, and other sources. The 1975-1993 numbers are
different from those reported in the 1994 JACF article because the published article included IPOs that
did not qualify for listing on Nasdaq, the Amex, or NYSE (mainly penny stocks). Unlike other tables,
bank and S&L IPOs are included in the counts in this table.

Number of Average Gross Proceeds,

Year Offerings1 First-day Return2 $ Millions3
1960 269 17.8% 553
1961 435 34.1% 1,243
1962 298 -1.6% 431
1963 83 3.9% 246
1964 97 5.3% 380
1965 146 12.7% 409
1966 85 7.1% 275
1967 100 37.7% 641
1968 368 55.9% 1,205
1969 780 12.5% 2,605
1970 358 -0.7% 780
1971 391 21.2% 1,655
1972 562 7.5% 2,724
1973 105 -17.8% 330
1974 9 -7.0% 51
1975 12 -0.2% 261
1976 26 1.9% 215
1977 15 3.6% 128
1978 19 13.3% 197
1979 39 8.9% 309
1980 71 14.3% 905
1981 193 5.9% 2,313
1982 79 10.7% 1,012
1983 521 9.0% 11,306
1984 213 3.0% 2,566
1985 217 6.6% 4,749
1986 478 6.1% 15,489
1987 337 5.7% 12,568
1988 132 5.3% 4,089
1989 124 7.7% 5,886
1990 116 10.4% 4,334
1991 293 11.8% 16,464

28
 1992 416 10.2% 22,750
1993 527 12.7% 31,654
1994 410 9.6% 17,418
1995 465 21.3% 28,022
1996 689 17.1% 42,428
1997 485 14.0% 32,547
1998 308 20.6% 34,411
1999 484 70.0% 64,816
2000 382 56.1% 64,931
2001 80 14.0% 34,241
2002 70 8.6% 22,136
2003 68 11.9% 10,075
2004 181 12.4% 31,663
2005 167 10.0% 28,578
2006 162 12.0% 30,648
2007 160 14.0% 35,704
2008 21 5.7% 22,762
2009 42 10.8% 13,307
2010 98 9.3% 30,742
2011 82 13.8% 27,750
2012 101 17.3% 32,065
2013 163 20.6% 39,093
2014 222 14.9% 46,967
2015 125 18.7% 22,296
2016 79 14.0% 13,234
2017 117 12.3% 24,044
2018 143 17.8% 34,027
2019 119 22.4% 39,479
2020 165 41.6% 61,860
2021 315 31.9% 119,631
1960-69 2,661 21.2% 7,988
1970-79 1,536 7.1% 6,663
1980-89 2,365 6.9% 60,881
1990-99 4,193 21.1% 294,826
2000-21 3,062 22.8% 788,909
1960-2021 13,826 17.7% 1,159,267

1
Beginning in 1975, the number of offerings excludes IPOs with an offer price of less than $5.00, ADRs, small best
efforts offers, units, Regulation A offers (small issues, raising less than $1.5 million during the 1980s and $5 million
until 2012), real estate investment trusts (REITs), SPACs, natural resource limited partnerships, and closed-end
funds. Banks and S&L IPOs are included. From 2012 and later, Regulation A offerings (issues raising up to $50
million are eligible) are included.
2
First-day returns are computed as the percentage return from the offering price to the first closing market price.
3
Gross proceeds exclude overallotment options but include the international tranche, if any. No adjustments for
inflation have been made.

29
 Table 9 (updated February 18, 2022)

Fraction of IPOs with Negative Earnings, 1980-2021

IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, partnerships,
acquisition companies, REITs, bank and S&L IPOs, and firms not listed on CRSP within six
months of the offer date are excluded. When available, I use the earnings per share for the most
recent twelve months (commonly known as LTM for last twelve months) prior to going public.
When a merger is involved, we use the pro forma numbers (as if the merger had already occurred).
I am not completely consistent in the use of earnings before or after extraordinary items. Some
extraordinary items are associated with the IPO, including gains or losses on conversion of
convertible securities at the time of the IPO, or writeups or writedowns associated with mergers. I
usually use the before extraordinary items EPS if the one-time charges are associated with the IPO.
When the trailing twelve months EPS number is unavailable, I use the most recent fiscal year EPS
number. Missing numbers are supplemented by direct inspection of prospectuses on EDGAR, EPS
information from Dealogic for IPOs after 1991, and Howard and Co.’s Going Public: The IPO
Reporter from 1980-1995. Remaining missing numbers have been found in the Graeme Howard-
Todd Huxster collection of IPO prospectuses and the Stanford Business School microfiche
collection of prospectuses from the 1980s. Don Patton of UC-Davis has tracked down a couple of
remaining missing numbers. Tech stocks are defined as internet-related stocks plus other
technology stocks, not including biotech. Loughran and Ritter (2004) list the SIC codes in their
appendix 3 and sources of founding dates in appendix 1.

Number No. with Percentage Percentage of Mean First-day Returns

Year of IPOs missing EPS Tech Stocks IPOs with EPS<0 EPS<0 EPS≥0
1980-1989 2,047 1 29% 19% 9.2% 6.8%
1990-1998 3,614 0 34% 32% 16.0% 14.3%
1999-2000 856 0 74% 78% 71.1% 41.6%
2001-2021 2,569 0 33% 61% 19.9% 16.5%

1980-2021 9,086 1 36% 42% 26.5% 13.3%

(year-by-year on the next page)

30
 Number No. with Percentage Percentage of Mean First-day Returns
Year of IPOs missing EPS Tech Stocks IPOs with EPS<0 EPS<0 EPS≥0
1980 71 0 31% 24% 7.1% 16.5%
1981 192 0 38% 17% 8.0% 5.4%
1982 77 0 55% 19% 6.4% 12.1%
1983 451 0 38% 22% 14.0% 8.8%
1984 171 0 29% 16% 11.1% 2.2%
1985 186 0 20% 15% 5.2% 6.6%
1986 393 1 20% 21% 8.8% 5.4%
1987 285 0 20% 17% 5.1% 5.8%
1988 105 0 27% 18% 6.0% 5.3%
1989 116 0 30% 22% 8.3% 7.9%
1990 110 0 28% 15% 9.5% 11.0%
1991 286 0 24% 24% 9.4% 12.7%
1992 412 0 28% 29% 10.2% 10.3%
1993 510 0 25% 28% 12.6% 12.8%
1994 402 0 29% 26% 8.0% 10.2%
1995 462 0 44% 30% 22.5% 21.0%
1996 677 0 40% 41% 16.7% 17.6%
1997 474 0 36% 36% 12.6% 14.9%
1998 281 0 40% 46% 32.2% 13.2%
1999 476 0 78% 76% 81.0% 40.2%
2000 380 0 68% 81% 59.4% 43.8%
2001 80 0 29% 49% 15.3% 12.8%
2002 66 0 30% 45% 5.6% 12.0%
2003 63 0 29% 44% 10.0% 13.2%
2004 173 0 35% 50% 11.9% 12.7%
2005 159 0 28% 45% 7.3% 12.8%
2006 157 0 31% 40% 7.3% 15.4%
2007 159 0 48% 55% 13.8% 14.3%
2008 21 0 29% 43% 1.8% 8.7%
2009 41 0 34% 29% 12.8% 8.6%
2010 91 0 36% 41% 6.9% 11.1%
2011 81 0 44% 57% 11.0% 17.7%
2012 93 0 43% 46% 22.4% 13.7%
2013 158 0 29% 63% 20.2% 21.9%
2014 206 0 25% 71% 17.1% 11.4%
2015 118 0 32% 70% 19.1% 19.6%
2016 75 0 28% 67% 13.2% 17.0%
2017 106 0 28% 77% 12.4% 14.8%
2018 134 0 29% 81% 20.4% 10.5%
2019 112 0 32% 77% 25.2% 17.9%
2020 165 0 25% 80% 45.3% 26.9%
2021 311 0 38% 75% 30.0% 38.6%
1980-2021 9,086 1 36% 42% 26.5% 13.3%

31
 Table 10 (updated January 3, 2022)

Gross Spreads Continue to Remain at 7% on Moderate-Size Deals

Here are the numbers for 2001-2021 for U.S. operating company IPOs raising more than $30
million ($2021) using bookbuilding, using the screens in Table 1. The 16 true auctions in 2001-
2013 listed in Table 13 are not included. Proceeds numbers do not include overallotment shares.

Proceeds Category
$30-125 million (inflation-adjusted in 2021 $) more than $125 million (2021 $)

<7% 3.7% (36) 51.1% (714)

=7% 95.0% (939) 48.3% (674)
>7% 1.3% (13) 0.6% (8)

Total 100% (988 IPOs) 100% (1,396 IPOs)

So, with a few exceptions (some of these are Canadian firms, and others were taken public by
WRHambrecht using auctions), 7% gross spreads for moderate-size IPOs are as entrenched as
ever. Indeed, in 1999-2000, deals above $100 million increasingly had 7% spreads, and this has
stuck—in 2001-2021 51.1% of large IPOs also had spreads of exactly 7%. In contrast, during
1997-1998 only 53 of 158 large IPOs (33.5%) had a gross spread of exactly 7%. See Hsuan-Chi
Chen and Jay R. Ritter’s “The Seven Percent Solution” in the June 2000 issue of the Journal of
Finance for evidence from earlier years, available at

https://site.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/files/2018/04/Spreads_IPOs_1980-2017.pdf

32
 Table 11 (updated January 3, 2022)

Mean and Median Gross Spreads and Number of Managing Underwriters, 1980-2021

IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, closed-end funds, REITs, bank
and S&L IPOs, energy limited partnerships, and firms not listed on CRSP within six months of the
offer date are excluded. EW is equally weighted and PW is proceeds-weighted. The fraction=7% is
the percentage of IPOs with a gross spread equal to exactly 7%. The number of managing
underwriters is the sum of both leads and co-managers. The decrease in the fraction of IPOs with a
7% spread in 2001-2002 is due to the smaller fraction of deals with proceeds of less than $150
million. In 2008 (Visa with a spread of 2.8% on a $17.9 billion IPO), 2010 (General Motors with a
spread of 0.75% on a $15.8 billion IPO), 2012 (Facebook with a 1.1% spread on a $16 billion IPO),
and 2019 (Uber Technologies with a spread of 1.3% on an $8,.1 billion IPO), a higher fraction of
IPOs were mega-deals with a gross spread far below 7%. UW is Underwriter.

In the top panel, proceeds categories are expressed in dollars of 2021 purchasing power, and
overallotment shares are not included. The bottom panel (on the next page) reports year-by-year
numbers.

Mean and Median Gross Spreads by Proceeds Categories, 2001-2021 ($2021)

Number Mean Median Mean

Proceeds of IPOs Gross spread Gross spread First-day Returns

Less than $10 million 23 7.77% 7.50% 13.0%

$10-49.99 million 270 7.15% 7.00% 21.8%
$50-99.99 million 594 6.97% 7.00% 9.7%
$100-199.99 million 749 6.91% 7.00% 23.1%
$200-999.99 million 800 6.30% 6.50% 20.3%
$1 billion or more 131 4.16% 4.35% 16.4%

2001-2021 2,567 6.63% 7.00% 18.5%

Note: For the smallest deals, it is not uncommon to have a “nonaccountable expense allowance”
equal to up to 3% of the proceeds in addition to the gross spread. As a result, the underwriter
compensation for these small deals in higher than the numbers reported here.

33
 Gross Spreads Fraction with Number of
Number Mean Mean Multiple Managing UWs
Year of IPOs EW PW Median =7% Bookrunners Mean Median

1980 71 8.0% 7.2% 7.5% 3% 0.0% 1.4 1.0

1981 193 7.9% 7.3% 7.5% 4% 0.0% 1.3 1.0
1982 77 8.1% 7.3% 7.9% 9% 0.0% 1.4 1.0
1983 451 7.7% 6.9% 7.3% 14% 0.0% 1.5 1.0
1984 171 7.9% 7.3% 7.5% 15% 0.0% 1.5 1.0
1985 186 7.7% 6.6% 7.5% 13% 0.0% 1.4 1.0
1986 393 7.5% 6.2% 7.2% 15% 0.0% 1.5 1.0
1987 285 7.5% 6.0% 7.1% 23% 0.0% 1.8 2.0
1988 105 7.3% 6.3% 7.0% 30% 0.0% 1.7 2.0
1989 116 7.3% 6.3% 7.0% 41% 0.0% 1.7 2.0
1990 110 7.3% 6.5% 7.0% 44% 0.0% 1.9 2.0
1991 286 7.1% 6.3% 7.0% 50% 0.0% 2.0 2.0
1992 412 7.2% 6.3% 7.0% 52% 0.0% 2.1 2.0
1993 510 7.2% 6.2% 7.0% 57% 0.4% 2.0 2.0
1994 402 7.3% 6.5% 7.0% 55% 0.0% 2.0 2.0
1995 462 7.2% 6.3% 7.0% 64% 0.0% 2.3 2.0
1996 677 7.2% 6.2% 7.0% 68% 0.0% 2.4 2.0
1997 474 7.2% 6.4% 7.0% 68% 0.8% 2.5 2.0
1998 281 7.1% 5.5% 7.0% 68% 1.8% 2.9 3.0
1999 476 6.9% 5.7% 7.0% 82% 4.6% 3.4 3.0
2000 380 6.9% 5.6% 7.0% 82% 7.4% 3.7 3.0
2001 79 6.6% 4.6% 7.0% 62% 19.0% 4.4 4.0
2002 66 6.7% 5.2% 7.0% 71% 28.8% 4.7 4.0
2003 63 7.0% 6.7% 7.0% 78% 31.7% 3.9 4.0
2004 173 6.8% 5.7% 7.0% 78% 37.0% 4.5 4.0
2005 159 6.7% 6.1% 7.0% 65% 50.3% 4.7 4.0
2006 157 6.8% 6.1% 7.0% 69% 54.1% 4.9 4.0
2007 159 6.7% 5.7% 7.0% 73% 60.4% 5.3 5.0
2008 21 6.4% 3.4% 7.0% 62% 76.2% 7.3 5.0
2009 41 6.4% 5.6% 7.0% 49% 85.4% 6.9 6.0
2010 91 6.7% 3.5% 7.0% 69% 83.5% 6.2 5.0
2011 81 6.4% 5.1% 7.0% 54% 87.7% 7.0 6.0
2012 93 6.7% 3.6% 7.0% 72% 93.5% 6.8 6.0
2013 158 6.6% 5.4% 7.0% 64% 91.8% 6.9 6.0
2014 206 6.6% 5.4% 7.0% 72% 90.3% 6.4 5.0
2015 118 6.7% 5.9% 7.0% 72% 90.7% 5.6 5.0
2016 75 6.7% 6.1% 7.0% 68% 94.7% 6.3 5.0
2017 106 6.6% 5.5% 7.0% 64% 90.6% 6.3 5.0
2018 134 6.5% 5.4% 7.0% 68% 95.5% 6.3 4.0
2019 112 6.5% 4.5% 7.0% 66% 94.6% 6.8 5.0
2020 165 6.6% 5.2% 7.0% 67% 89.1% 6.7 4.0
2021 309 6.4% 5.0% 7.0% 51% 87.7% 7.5 6.0

1980-2021 9,084 7.1% 5.5% 7.0% 54% 21.8% 3.3 2.0

34
 Table 12 (updated February 17, 2022)
Number of IPOs Categorized by the LTM Sales (in millions of 2005 $), 1980-2021
LTM is last twelve months. MV is the post-issue market value valued at the offer price. Sales and market
value are in millions. PSR is the price-to-sales ratio, and is the median ratio, not the ratio of medians.
Number of IPOs Percentage of IPOs Medians, $2005
Year <$50 mm >$50 mm <$50 mm >$50mm Sales MV PSR
1980 38 33 54% 46% 44 74 2.2
1981 140 52 73% 27% 28 72 2.9
1982 54 23 70% 30% 21 65 3.0
1983 286 165 63% 37% 28 88 2.8
1984 99 72 58% 42% 39 53 1.6
1985 95 91 51% 49% 46 68 1.3
1986 199 194 51% 49% 49 77 1.5
1987 137 148 48% 52% 53 96 1.5
1988 44 61 42% 58% 83 116 1.5
1989 49 67 42% 58% 60 111 2.0
1990 44 66 40% 60% 56 124 2.0
1991 118 168 41% 59% 69 127 1.6
1992 191 221 46% 54% 58 119 1.8
1993 230 280 45% 55% 61 115 1.9
1994 214 188 53% 47% 47 92 1.8
1995 258 204 56% 44% 39 134 3.0
1996 411 266 61% 39% 32 137 3.9
1997 273 201 58% 42% 41 133 3.0
1998 146 135 52% 48% 47 194 3.4
1999 341 135 72% 28% 19 361 18.3
2000 279 101 73% 27% 14 460 30.1
2001 25 54 32% 68% 146 479 2.4
2002 16 50 24% 76% 263 517 2.1
2003 15 48 24% 76% 173 370 2.7
2004 70 103 40% 60% 87 298 3.8
2005 46 113 29% 71% 133 360 2.6
2006 54 103 34% 66% 105 325 3.8
2007 59 100 37% 63% 81 373 6.1
2008 4 17 19% 81% 172 375 4.0
2009 4 37 10% 90% 239 517 1.8
2010 22 69 24% 76% 132 355 2.7
2011 24 57 30% 70% 131 614 4.9
2012 19 74 20% 80% 126 377 3.4
2013 58 100 37% 63% 94 441 5.0
2014 98 108 48% 52% 60 286 7.2
2015 60 58 51% 49% 46 403 9.8
2016 34 41 45% 55% 65 422 5.0
2017 47 59 45% 55% 90 470 6.2
2018 71 63 53% 47% 33 398 12.8
2019 58 54 51% 49% 45 416 14.7
2020 96 69 58% 42% 21 572 23.5
2021 141 170 45% 55% 79 852 18.4

1980-2021 4,667 4,419 51% 49% 47.5 181 3.4

35
 Table 12a (updated March 11, 2022)
Number of IPOs Categorized by the LTM Sales (in 2005 $), 1980-2021
MV is the post-issue market value valued at the first closing price. Sales and MV are in millions. PSR is the price-to-
sales ratio. There has been 46.8% CPI inflation since 2005, and thus the cutoff would be $73.4 million in 2022 dollars.
Number of IPOs Percentage of IPOs Medians, $2005
Year <$50 mm >$50 mm <$50 mm >$50 mm Sales MV PSR
1980 38 33 54% 46% 44 83 2.5
1981 140 52 73% 27% 28 77 3.0
1982 54 23 70% 30% 21 68 3.1
1983 286 165 63% 37% 28 93 3.2
1984 99 73 58% 42% 39 54 1.6
1985 95 92 51% 49% 46 69 1.5
1986 199 194 51% 49% 49 78 1.6
1987 137 148 48% 52% 53 99 1.6
1988 44 60 42% 58% 83 126 1.6
1989 49 67 42% 58% 60 122 2.4
1990 44 66 40% 60% 56 131 2.2
1991 118 168 41% 59% 69 144 1.8
1992 191 221 46% 54% 58 133 2.0
1993 230 280 45% 55% 61 124 2.1
1994 214 188 53% 47% 47 98 2.1
1995 258 204 56% 44% 39 161 3.5
1996 411 266 61% 39% 32 158 4.5
1997 273 201 58% 42% 41 149 3.3
1998 146 135 52% 48% 47 224 3.6
1999 341 135 72% 28% 19 551 30.2
2000 279 101 73% 27% 14 641 40.9
2001 25 54 32% 68% 146 507 2.9
2002 16 50 24% 76% 263 560 2.3
2003 15 48 24% 76% 173 392 2.7
2004 70 103 40% 60% 87 352 4.2
2005 46 113 29% 71% 133 347 2.7
2006 54 103 34% 66% 105 353 3.9
2007 59 100 37% 63% 83 457 6.7
2008 4 17 19% 81% 172 425 3.9
2009 4 37 10% 90% 239 622 2.0
2010 22 69 24% 76% 132 379 2.8
2011 24 57 30% 70% 131 747 5.6
2012 19 74 20% 80% 126 503 4.4
2013 58 100 37% 63% 94 571 5.0
2014 98 108 48% 52% 60 350 8.9
2015 60 58 51% 49% 46 437 12.2
2016 34 41 45% 55% 65 409 6.5
2017 47 59 44% 56% 90 509 7.5
2018 71 63 53% 47% 33 481 17.5
2019 58 54 52% 48% 45 578 19.4
2020 96 69 58% 42% 21 815 38.2
2021 141 170 45% 55% 79 1040 23.1

1980-2021 4,667 4,419 51% 49% 47.5 203 3.8

36
 Table 12b (updated April 7, 2022)
Number of IPOs Categorized by the LTM Sales (in 2011 $), 1980-2021
Number Number of IPOs Percentage of IPOs
Year of IPOs <$1 billion >$1 billion <$1 billion >$1 billion
1980 71 71 0 100% 0%
1981 192 190 2 99% 1%
1982 77 77 0 100% 0%
1983 451 440 11 98% 2%
1984 171 169 2 99% 1%
1985 186 182 4 98% 2%
1986 393 375 18 95% 5%
1987 285 267 18 94% 6%
1988 105 94 11 90% 10%
1989 116 108 8 93% 7%
1990 110 103 7 94% 6%
1991 286 270 16 94% 6%
1992 412 385 27 93% 7%
1993 509 481 29 94% 6%
1994 402 384 18 96% 4%
1995 462 437 25 95% 5%
1996 677 658 19 97% 3%
1997 474 450 24 95% 5%
1998 281 262 19 93% 7%
1999 476 455 21 96% 4%
2000 380 366 14 96% 4%
2001 79 60 20 75% 25%
2002 66 50 16 76% 24%
2003 63 58 5 92% 8%
2004 173 151 22 87% 13%
2005 159 139 20 87% 13%
2006 157 138 19 88% 12%
2007 159 142 17 89% 11%
2008 21 18 3 86% 14%
2009 41 28 13 68% 32%
2010 91 78 13 86% 14%
2011 81 67 14 83% 17%
2012 93 77 16 83% 17%
2013 158 128 30 81% 19%
2014 206 175 31 85% 15%
2015 118 107 11 91% 9%
2016 75 61 14 81% 19%
2017 106 90 16 85% 15%
2018 134 122 12 91% 9%
2019 112 103 9 92% 8%
2020 165 148 17 90% 10%
2021 311 286 25 92% 8%
1980-2021 9,086 8,450 636 93% 7%

37
 Table 13 (updated January 3, 2022)

IPO Auctions in the U.S., 1999-2021

The average first-day return on WRHambrecht’s 19 IPO auctions has been 12.6%. For the 22
auction IPOs, including those by other underwriters, the average first-day return has been 12.5%.
In 2020-2021, the five IPOs listed used bookbuilding although the issuer insisted that all
indications of interest include both price and quantity indications. For IPO auctions for which
WRHambrecht was the bookrunner, the numbers are as follows:

Gross Gross First-day

Name of IPO (ticker) Date of IPO Spread Proceeds Return

1999: (3 out of 476 IPOs)

Ravenswood Winery (RVWD) 19990408 4.00% $10.5 million 3.62%
Salon.com (SALN) 19990622 5.00% $26.25 million -4.76%
Andover.net (ANDN) 19991208 6.50% $72.0 million 252.08%
2000: (1 out of 380 IPOs)
Nogatech (NGTC) 20000518 6.50% $42.0 million -21.58%
2001: (2 out of 79 IPOs)
Peet’s Coffee (PEET) 20010125 6.50% $26.4 million 17.25%
Briazz (BRZZ) 20010502 6.00% $16.0 million 0.38%
2002: (1 out of 66 IPOs)
Overstock.com (OSTK) 20020529 4.00% $39.0 million 0.23%
2003: (2 out of 63 IPOs)
RedEnvelope (REDE) 20030925 6.00% $30.8 million 3.93%
Genitope (GTOP) 20031029 7.00% $33.3 million 11.11%
In 2003, WRHambrecht was also the joint bookrunner with JP Morgan on the Sunset Financial Resources IPO that
did not use an auction.

2004: (1 out of 173 IPOs)

New River Pharmaceuticals (NRPH) 20040805 7.00% $33.6 million -6.25%
In 2004, WRHambrecht was a co-manager on the Google auction IPO for which CSFB and Morgan Stanley were
the bookrunners. The IPO climbed 18.04% on its first day of trading.

2005: (5 out of 159 IPOs)

B of I Holding (BOFI) 20050315 6.00% $35.1 million 0.00%
Morningstar (MORN) 20050502 2.00% $140.83 million 8.38%
CryoCor (CRYO) 20050714 7.00% $40.8 million -1.18%
Avalon Pharmaceuticals (AVRX) 20050928 7.00% $28.8 million -5.10%
Dover Saddlery (DOVR) 20051117 5.00% $27.5 million 2.50%
2006: (2 out of 157 IPOs)
Traffic.com (TRFC) 20060125 6.00% $78.6 million 1.25%
FortuNet (FNET) 20060131 4.50% $22.5 million 0.56%

38
2007: (2 out of 159 IPOs)
Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR) 20070504 1.88% $1,200.4 million 4.30%
Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) 20070525 5.85% $120.0 million 0.33%
In 2007, WRHambrecht was a co-manager on the Netsuite auction IPO for which Credit Suisse was the bookrunner.
The IPO climbed 36.54% on the first day of trading.

2008: (0 out of 21 IPOs)

In 2008, WRHambrecht was a co-manager on the Rackspace Hosting auction IPO for which Credit Suisse, Goldman
Sachs, and Merrill Lynch were joint bookrunners. The IPO dropped 19.92% on its first day of trading.

2009: (0 out of 41 IPOs)

2010: (0 out of 91 IPOs)
2011: (0 out of 81 IPOs)
2012: (0 out of 93 IPOs)
2013: (1 out 158 IPOs)
Truett-Hurst Inc (THST) 20130619 7.00% $16.2 million -5.33%
2014: (0 out of 206 IPOs)
2015: (0 out 118 IPOs)
2016: (0 out of 75 IPOs)
2017: (0 out of 106 IPOs)
2018: (0 out of 134 IPOs)
2019: (0 out of 112 IPOs)
2020: (3 out of 165 IPOs)
Unity Software (U) 20200918 4.75% $1,300.0 million 31.4%
DoorDash (DASH) 20201209 2.40% $3,366.0 million 85.8%
Airbnb (ABNB) 20201210 2.12% $3,490.0 million 112.8%
2021:
ACV Auctions (ACVA) 20210324 6.00% $413.8 million 25.0%
Marqeta (MQ) 20210609 6.50% $1,227.3 million 13.0%

Financial press articles stated that Unity required that all indications of interest submitted to the lead-left underwriter
(Goldman Sachs) had to include a price as well as quantity of shares requested. Bids at multiple prices were
permitted. All bids at or above the offer price received shares, but Unity reserved the right to make non-pro rata
allocations among the winning bidders. DoorDash (Goldman Sachs), Airbnb (Morgan Stanley), ACV Auctions
(Goldman Sachs), and Marqeta (Goldman Sachs) used similar procedures. All raised the offer price substantially,
but still left huge amounts of money on the table.

WR Hambrecht has also been a bookrunner on several other IPOs that did not use an auction. For example, on
20150415, they did a $76 million best efforts IPO of Xbiotech (XBIT), which increased 22.37% on the first day of
trading, on 20170630 they did a $12.0 million IPO for ShiftPixy, and on 20170921 they did a $19.1 million IPO for
Arcimoto.

39
 Table 13a: Direct Listings in the U.S., 2018-2022
(updated May 19, 2022)

With direct listings, no shares trade hands at the reference price. Instead, there is typically a large
block trade at the open. The first-day return is thus calculated from the open to the closing price.
With traditional IPOs, including auctions, the first-day return would be computed from the offer
price to the close. The returns calculated in these two manners reflect the returns earned by
buyers who bought from the issuer and selling shareholders. The July 2019 Nasdaq listing of
iHeartMedia (IHRT) is not included because the stock was traded OTC beforehand. For Watford
Holdings, the “Current Reference Price” is used instead of a “Reference Price” based on the front
page of the SEC Form 424B3 prospectus. For this company, there had been no private market
transactions on which to base a reference price. The current reference price was defined to be the
market-clearing opening price.

Thryv Holdings has unusually low volume on the first day of trading, only 9,569 shares (this
number has been confirmed with the company as correct). It had much higher volume on the
second day, 208,916 shares, with a price jump to a close of $14.39. The prospectus for Thryv
Holdings reports 30,829,145 shares outstanding, giving it a market cap at the opening price of
$430 million, considerably less than the unicorns doing direct listings.

Bright Green Corporation also did not have a reference price, but instead has a current reference
price that is equal to the opening trade.

40
 Table 13a
Direct Listings in the U.S., 2018-2022
In the bottom panel, the last column is a measure of intraday volatility on the first day of trading.
The average volatility for these five direct listings is about the same as that on the IPOs of
similar companies. High, low, and closing prices, as well as trading volume, come from
BigCharts.Marketwatch.com or WSJ.com.
Date of Prices First-day
Name of IPO (ticker) Listing Reference Open Close Return
Spotify Technology (SPOT) 20180403 $132.00 $165.90 $149.01 -10.2%
Watford Holdings (WTRE) 20190328 $25.26 $25.26 $27.00 6.9%
Slack (WORK) 20190620 $26.00 $38.50 $38.62 0.3%
Asana (ASAN) 20200930 $21.00 $27.00 $28.80 6.7%
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) 20200930 $7.25 $10.00 $9.50 -5.0%
Thryv Holdings (THRY) 20201001 $12.40 $14.00 $11.075 -20.9%
Roblox (RBLX) 20210310 $45.00 $64.50 $69.50 7.8%
Coinbase Global (COIN) 20210414 $250.00 $381.00 $328.28 -13.8%
SquareSpace (SQSP) 20210519 $50.00 $48.00 $43.65 -9.1%
ZipRecruiter (ZIP) 20210526 $18.00 $20.00 $21.10 5.5%
Amplitude (AMPL) 20210928 $35.00 $50.00 $54.80 9.6%
Warby Parker (WRBY) 20210929 $40.00 $54.11 $54.49 0.7%

Bright Green (BGXX) 20220517 $15.99 $15.99 $25.245 57.9%

Trading Prices (High-Low)
Name of IPO (ticker) Volume Low High Close ÷Close, %
Spotify Technology (SPOT) 30,526,500 $148.26 $165.90 $149.01 11.8%
Watford Holdings Ltd (WTRE) 129,131 $25.26 $27.40 $27.00 7.9%
Slack (WORK) 137,364,188 $38.25 $42.00 $38.62 9.7%
Asana (ASAN) 40,825,910 $26.75 $29.96 $28.80 11.1%
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) 338,584,375 $9.11 $11.42 $9.50 24.3%
Thryv Holdings (THRY) 9,569 $10.60 $14.00 $11.075 30.7%
Roblox (RBLX) 97,069,344 $60.50 $74.83 $69.50 20.6%
Coinbase Global (COIN) 81,065,750 $310.00 $429.54 $328.28 36.4%
SquareSpace (SQSP) 5,471,014 $42.82 $50.02 $43.65 16.5%
ZipRecruiter (ZIP) 16,606,301 $19.32 $21.69 $21.10 11.2%
Amplitude (AMPL) 11,529,531 $50.00 $54.90 $54.80 8.9%
Warby Parker (WRBY) 13,805,076 $52.96 $54.74 $54.49 3.3%

Bright Green (BGXX) 315,750 $15.99 $36.44 $26.245 77.9%

41
 Table 14 (updated February 21, 2022)

The Market Share of Foreign Companies among U.S. Listings, 1980-2021

This table includes American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) as well as other IPOs, and so has a
higher total number of U.S. IPOs. I continue to exclude IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per
share, unit offers, SPACs, REITs, closed-end funds, natural resource limited partnerships, small
best efforts IPOs, banks and S&Ls, and IPOs not listed on CRSP (this last screen limits the sample
to NASDAQ, Amex, and NYSE-listed issues) within six months of the offer date. Bermuda-
domiciled companies are included as foreign, irrespective of the main country of operations.
Bermuda, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are the most
common countries for IPOs that list in the U.S. Dealogic is the main source of information on
foreign IPOs, because Thomson Financial frequently classifies a follow-on offering that
simultaneously includes a U.S. listing as an IPO, as does the NYSE. I have deleted these listings
(a list of more than 110 of them can be found in “SDC Corrections” on my IPO Data page) from
the IPO counts when I have been able to identify them. The count for Chinese IPOs does not
include those from Hong Kong and excludes “reverse mergers” and best efforts IPOs. There are
six bank IPOs of ADRs that are counted (1 in 1988, 1 in 1993, 2 in 1994, and 2 in 2009). There
were 4 additional foreign issues in 1981, but they did not get listed on CRSP until more than six
months after the IPO.

In addition to the IPOs listed in this table, there have been more than twenty Chinese IPOs with
an offer price of below $5.00 per share, plus some unit offers. Some of these deals were best
efforts offerings. Those with an offer price below $5 per share include the following (these deals
raised a median of only $8.6 million):

2007 2
2008 1
2009 2
2010 4
2015 1
2016 1
2017 2
2018 3
2019 4
2020 3
2021 6

42
 Number Foreign Chinese
Year of IPOs Domestic Total ADRs % Foreign Total ADRs % Chinese
1980 71 70 1 0 1.4% 0 0 0%
1981 193 192 1 0 0.5% 0 0 0%
1982 78 76 2 1 2.6% 0 0 0%
1983 453 446 7 2 1.5% 0 0 0%
1984 175 168 7 5 4.0% 0 0 0%
1985 186 183 3 0 1.6% 0 0 0%
1986 394 392 2 1 0.5% 0 0 0%
1987 285 281 4 0 1.4% 0 0 0%
1988 109 100 9 5 8.3% 0 0 0%
1989 119 110 9 3 7.6% 0 0 0%
1990 111 107 4 1 3.6% 0 0 0%
1991 288 278 10 2 3.5% 0 0 0%
1992 416 393 23 4 5.5% 0 0 0%
1993 527 487 39 19 7.6% 1 1 0.2%
1994 420 385 33 22 8.3% 3 2 0.7%
1995 477 436 41 16 8.6% 1 1 0.2%
1996 710 646 64 33 9.0% 1 1 0.1%
1997 504 430 74 34 14.7% 4 3 0.8%
1998 294 256 38 13 12.9% 2 1 0.7%
1999 501 450 51 26 10.2% 1 0 0.2%
2000 418 336 82 40 19.6% 7 4 1.7%
2001 83 74 9 4 10.8% 2 2 2.4%
2002 68 63 5 2 7.4% 1 1 1.5%
2003 66 60 6 3 9.1% 2 2 3.0%
2004 189 160 28 16 15.3% 9 9 4.8%
2005 172 142 30 13 17.4% 8 8 4.7%
2006 172 138 34 15 19.8% 9 7 5.2%
2007 190 138 52 31 27.4% 29 27 15.3%
2008 24 18 6 3 25.0% 4 3 16.7%
2009 49 38 11 8 22.4% 10 7 20.4%
2010 125 80 45 34 36.0% 33 32 26.4%
2011 93 70 23 12 24.7% 13 11 14.0%
2012 97 85 12 4 12.4% 2 2 2.1%
2013 168 140 28 10 16.8% 8 6 4.8%
2014 225 176 49 19 21.8% 14 14 6.2%
2015 126 104 22 8 17.5% 5 4 4.0%
2016 83 68 15 9 18.1% 6 6 7.2%
2017 125 94 31 20 24.8% 17 15 13.6%
2018 166 119 47 32 28.3% 28 27 16.9%
2019 138 100 38 27 27.5% 25 20 18.1%
2020 198 147 50 32 25.8% 30 25 15.2%
2021 347 263 84 36 24.2% 30 21 8.6%
1980-2021 9,633 8,499 1,129 565 11.7% 305 262 3.2%
43
 Table 15 (updated June 6, 2022)

How Many IPOs Are There?

The net number of IPOs excludes Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), closed-end funds, Real
Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), unit offers (typically composed of a share plus a warrant to buy a share), IPOs
with an offer price of less than $5.00, commercial banks and savings and loans S&Ls), companies not promptly
listed on the Amex, NYSE, or Nasdaq, master limited partnerships, small best efforts offers (included in the other
exclusions column), and foreign companies issuing American Depositary Receipts (6 of which are banks). 11
ADRs are missing a first-day return, and the “including ADRs” averages exclude them. SPACs that are unit offers
are classified as SPACs rather than units. No CRSP listing refers to IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months
of the IPO. CRSP covers stocks listed on Nasdaq, the NYSE, and the NYSE MKT (the Amex prior to May 10,
2012).

Some IPOs are excluded for multiple reasons. For example, some bank and S&L IPOs are also excluded due to
not being listed on CRSP. The bank and S&L count includes all of them (other than ADRs).

44
 Table 15

Number CEFs, Units and Banks No CRSP Including ADRs

of IPOs SPACs, penny and listing or Mean
Year Gross Net and REITs stocks LPs S&Ls others ADRs No. return
1980 234 71 1 56 0 0 106 0 71 14.3%
1981 439 192 0 103 0 0 144 0 192 5.9%
1982 198 77 1 14 0 3 102 1 78 10.9%
1983 850 451 1 168 0 75 152 3 453 9.9%
1984 518 171 4 139 1 47 150 6 177 3.8%
1985 326 186 16 102 6 43 0 0 186 6.4%
1986 710 393 28 183 20 100 0 1 394 6.1%
1987 531 285 36 131 15 57 7 0 285 5.6%
1988 293 105 74 88 3 30 0 5 109 5.4%
1989 254 116 46 83 2 11 0 3 119 8.0%
1990 213 110 43 55 1 7 0 1 111 10.7%
1991 408 286 45 65 2 7 2 2 288 11.9%
1992 602 412 105 80 1 4 0 5 416 10.2%
1993 772 510 175 93 3 17 0 17 525 12.5%
1994 594 402 84 106 3 10 0 19 418 9.5%
1995 574 462 11 77 2 3 4 16 478 20.9%
1996 845 677 15 104 5 15 0 34 710 16.9%
1997 601 474 30 63 1 15 0 34 507 13.7%
1998 379 283 39 20 2 33 0 13 294 21.8%
1999 565 476 37 18 3 12 0 26 501 69.7%
2000 431 380 2 8 0 4 0 40 418 55.4%
2001 130 80 38 5 4 0 0 4 84 13.8%
2002 157 66 81 2 6 4 0 2 68 9.0%
2003 131 63 57 5 0 5 0 3 66 13.0%
2004 304 173 95 5 5 8 2 16 188 11.9%
2005 283 159 88 4 9 8 2 13 172 11.7%
2006 261 157 62 5 18 5 0 15 172 12.5%
2007 326 159 116 4 14 1 1 31 190 14.4%
2008 53 21 22 3 4 0 0 3 24 4.3%
2009 80 41 22 3 0 2 2 10 49 8.8%
2010 198 91 37 9 7 11 7 36 125 12.2%
2011 178 81 50 5 18 12 0 12 93 13.3%
2012 175 93 46 4 16 11 0 5 97 17.2%
2013 255 158 58 3 19 5 2 10 168 22.3%
2014 305 206 30 10 20 19 1 19 225 14.8%
2015 183 118 35 4 9 7 2 8 126 18.7%
2016 113 75 18 4 1 4 2 9 83 14.1%
2017 202 106 52 3 5 11 5 20 125 13.6%
2018 243 134 52 9 1 9 6 32 166 17.1%
2019 228 112 67 6 1 7 8 27 138 19.8%
2020 465 165 257 7 0 0 4 32 197 38.3%
2021 1,026 311 628 34 0 11 8 36 347 31.0%

Total 15,636 9,088 2,704 1,890 227 633 719 569 9,630 18.7%

45
 Table 15a (updated June 6, 2022)

IPO Volume and Average First-day Returns with Banks, LPs, and ADRs Included

In the last two columns of the table, the net number of IPOs is expanded to include LPs, banks and S&Ls, and
ADRs. Only CRSP-listed IPOs that have first-day return information are included, and therefore the number of
IPOs added is slightly less for many years than if the “net” IPO count is added to the LP count, the bank and S&L
count, and the ADR count. CRSP covers IPOs that are listed on Nasdaq, NYSE, and NYSE Market (formerly
Amex). If a stock takes more than six months before CRSP-listing, it is not included in the count. The sample
size of 15,633 IPOs from 1980-2021 includes the 9,086 IPOs from 1980-2021 used in most tables, plus 548 ADRs
with a first-day return, 227 natural resource industry limited partnerships, and 577 bank and S&L IPOs (6 of
which are ADRs). There are also 14 ADRs with a missing first-day close (1 in 1986, 2 in 1988, 2 in 1989, 2 in
1992, 2 in 1993, 3 in 1994, 1 in 1995, 1 in 1997).

As with Table 15, the net number of IPOs in the first column excludes Special Purpose Acquisition Companies
(SPACs), closed-end funds (not including interval funds), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), unit offers
(typically composed of a share plus a warrant to buy a share), IPOs with an offer price of less than $5.00,
commercial banks and savings and loans, companies not promptly listed on the Amex, NYSE, or Nasdaq, natural
resource master limited partnerships, small best efforts offers (included in the other exclusions column), and
foreign companies issuing American Depositary Receipts (6 of which are banks). SPACs that are unit offers are
classified as SPACs rather than units.

Table 15a also differs from Table 15 in that the category of SPACs, closed-end funds, and REITs in Table 15 is
decomposed into the three component parts. Blind pool offerings from the pre-2004 era were previously not
included as SPACs, but I have recently added those from 1988-1997. These blind-pool offers are almost always
screened out of the net number of offerings because they are either unit offers, penny stocks (offer price below
$5 per share), small best efforts deals, or were not CRSP-listed. The remaining blind pool offers are excluded in
the “other reasons” category. A typical blind pool offering raised a few million dollars and investors never
received anything in return.

The average first-day return on 577 bank and S&L IPOs is 6.1%, with a range of -20% to +57.5%. In most of my
tables, I exclude Bank and S&L IPOs because, among other reasons, it is not always clear how many shares are
sold to the general public versus sold to depositors and employees, since most of these offerings are
demutualizations. The same can be said of some insurance IPOs, which I include.

The average first-day return on 558 ADR IPOs with a closing market price, including banks, is 16.7%, with a
range of -37.2% to 414.3%, with the 2000 internet company Crayfish Co. Ltd IPO having the highest return, at
414.3%. In most of my tables, I exclude ADRs because, among other reasons, the accounting data is not always
reliable (SDC sometimes makes translation mistakes) and the U.S. tranche may be a small part of a larger offering,
especially in the home country of the company.

The average first-day return on 227 limited partnerships is 3.7%, with a range of -6.8% to +33.3%. In most of my
tables, I exclude natural resource company limited partnerships because it if frequently difficult to discern the
founding date of the underlying business, since most of these IPOs are spinoffs partly motivated by tax
minimization strategies. Also, most of these LPs are created at the time of the IPO, and identifying whether the
LP is profitable, what its trailing sales are, and what its assets are, is sometimes problematic. The same can be
said of rollups, which I include. I also include newly created reinsurance companies.

46
 Table 15a

Number of CEFs, Closed SPACs Banks Including LPs,

IPOs SPACs, and -end Non- and Banks, & ADRs
Year Gross Net REITs funds REITs unit Unit LPs S&Ls No. Mean IR

1980 234 71 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 71 14.3%

1981 439 192 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 192 5.9%
1982 198 77 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 80 10.5%
1983 850 451 1 0 1 0 0 0 75 523 8.9%
1984 518 171 4 0 4 0 0 1 47 220 3.1%
1985 326 186 16 1 15 0 0 6 43 223 6.4%
1986 710 393 28 25 3 0 0 20 100 497 5.9%
1987 531 285 36 32 4 0 0 15 57 349 5.5%
1988 293 105 74 65 8 0 1 3 30 136 5.3%
1989 254 116 46 46 0 0 0 2 11 128 7.7%
1990 213 110 43 42 0 0 1 1 7 118 10.3%
1991 408 286 45 42 2 0 1 2 7 295 11.8%
1992 602 412 105 98 5 0 2 1 4 420 10.1%
1993 772 510 175 121 46 0 8 3 17 546 12.4%
1994 594 402 84 37 41 0 6 3 10 432 9.4%
1995 574 462 11 2 7 0 2 2 3 483 20.8%
1996 845 677 15 5 6 0 4 5 15 727 16.7%
1997 601 474 30 7 22 0 1 1 15 517 13.6%
1998 379 283 39 24 15 0 0 2 33 323 20.6%
1999 565 476 37 35 2 0 0 3 12 512 68.3%
2000 431 380 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 420 55.1%
2001 130 80 38 38 0 0 0 4 0 86 13.6%
2002 157 66 81 77 4 0 0 6 4 77 7.8%
2003 131 63 57 49 7 0 1 0 5 71 13.1%
2004 304 173 95 55 28 0 12 5 8 201 11.9%
2005 283 159 88 50 11 4 24 9 8 189 11.5%
2006 261 157 62 22 5 0 35 18 5 195 11.4%
2007 326 159 116 47 4 0 65 14 1 205 14.0%
2008 53 21 22 3 2 0 17 4 0 28 4.1%
2009 80 41 22 13 9 0 0 0 2 50 9.6%
2010 198 91 37 22 8 0 7 7 11 139 11.5%
2011 178 81 50 25 9 0 16 18 12 112 11.6%
2012 175 93 46 28 9 1 8 16 11 122 15.8%
2013 255 158 58 28 20 3 7 19 5 192 20.1%
2014 305 206 30 13 6 0 11 20 19 261 14.2%
2015 183 118 35 8 7 1 19 9 7 142 17.4%
2016 113 75 18 2 3 0 13 1 4 89 13.6%
2017 202 106 52 9 9 0 34 5 11 141 12.7%
2018 243 134 52 1 6 0 46 1 9 176 16.4%
2019 228 112 67 6 2 0 59 1 7 146 19.0%
2020 465 165 257 5 4 11 237 0 0 197 38.3%
2021 1,026 311 628 10 5 33 580 0 11 349 30.7%

Total 15,636 9,088 2,704 1,095 340 53 1,217 227 633 10,380 17.8%

47
 Table 15b (updated June 14, 2022)
Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) IPOs, 1990-2021
IR is the initial return, measured from the offer price to the first close. Proceeds are in millions and do
not include overallotment shares. For 1990-1997 and 2004-2007, 50 of the initial returns are missing
for OTC issues.

Operating Company IPOs SPAC IPOs SPAC IPOs

Year Number Mean IR Non-unit Unit Total Proceeds, $b Mean IR

1990 110 10.8% 0 1 1 $0.003

1991 286 11.9% 0 1 1 $0.015
1992 412 10.3% 0 2 2 $0.030
1993 510 12.7% 0 8 8 $0.115
1994 402 9.6% 0 6 6 $0.100
1995 462 21.4% 0 2 2 $0.018
1996 677 17.2% 0 4 4 $0.032
1997 474 14.0% 0 1 2 $0.018
1998 281 21.9% 0 0 0
1999 476 71.2% 0 0 0
2000 380 56.3% 0 0 0
2001 80 14.0% 0 0 0
2002 66 9.1% 0 0 0
2003 63 11.7% 0 1 1 $0.024 0.9%
2004 173 12.3% 0 12 12 $0.425 0.8%
2005 159 10.3% 4 24 28 $1.846 1.9%
2006 157 12.1% 0 35 35 $3.013 3.2%
2007 159 14.0% 0 65 65 $10.985 0.7%
2008 21 5.7% 0 17 17 $3.627 0.2%
2009 41 9.8% 0 0 0 0
2010 91 9.4% 0 7 7 $0.513 -1.5%
2011 81 13.9% 0 16 16 $1.049 0.4%
2012 93 17.7% 1 8 9 $0.475 0.0%
2013 158 20.9% 3 7 10 $1.325 0.2%
2014 206 15.5% 0 11 11 $1.555 -0.1%
2015 118 19.2% 1 19 20 $3.620 0.4%
2016 75 14.5% 0 13 13 $3.224 0.3%
2017 106 12.9% 0 34 34 $8.996 0.7%
2018 134 18.6% 0 46 46 $9.935 0.4%
2019 112 23.5% 0 59 59 $12.115 0.6%
2020 165 41.6% 11 237 248 $75.337 1.6%
2021 311 32.0% 33 580 613 $144.52 1.9%
Total 7,039 22.2% 53 1,216 1,269 $282.92 1.5%
SPAC IPOs by Quarter
1Q 21 298 3.7%
2Q 21 60 0.3%
3Q 21 89 -0.2%
4Q 21 166 0.5%
1Q 22 54 0.0%

48
 Table 16 (updated February 15, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by the Pre-issue Sales of the Firm, 1980-2020

All Last Twelve Months (LTM) sales figures for the firms going public have been converted into
dollars of January 2021 purchasing power using the Consumer Price Index. 8,775 IPOs from 1980-
2020 are used, with returns calculated through the end of December 2021. IPOs with an offer price
below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, REITs, closed end funds, natural resource partnerships,
banks and S&Ls, small best efforts offers, and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of the
offer date are excluded. mm is millions of dollars. Buy-and-hold returns are calculated until the
earlier of the three-year anniversary or the delisting date (no later than Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs
from 2019 and 2020). Market-adjusted returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. Style
adjustments use firms matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of
CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. For post-issue book value of
equity numbers, I use the post-issue common equity numbers from SDC with corrections by
checking the prospectus, and for the remaining missing numbers I use the equity book values
reported for the nearest quarter after the IPO on COMPUSTAT, and further missing numbers are
calculated using the reported pre-IPO equity book values plus the amount of the proceeds
(assuming that overallotment option shares and costs of issuing offset each other) times the fraction
of the primary shares. For dual-class shares, the post-issue book-to-market ratio is calculated using
the larger of the post-issue number of shares reported from SDC (with corrections to account for
all share classes) and the total shares outstanding reported from CRSP at end of the IPO date.
Market capitalization (size) is calculated using the first closing market price after the IPO and the
post-issue number of shares outstanding. All returns include dividends and capital gains, including
the index returns.

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Sales (in 2021$) of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

0-9.999 mm 1,714 21.8% -7.5% -45.5% -30.3%

10-19.999 mm 692 27.9% -0.9% -39.3% -18.0%
20-49.999 mm 1,488 24.1% 19.5% -23.3% -7.9%
50-99.999 mm 1,392 18.0% 30.7% -13.1% -3.0%
100-499.999 mm 2,290 14.0% 45.9% 3.2% 9.0%
500 mm and up 1,199 9.8% 37.5% 0.3% 0.0%

0-99.999 mm 5,286 22.2% 11.0% -29.9% -15.2%

100 mm and up 3,489 12.6% 43.0% 2.2% 5.9%

1980-2020 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

49
 Table 16a (updated February 15, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by the Pre-issue Sales of the Firm, 1980-2020

All Last Twelve Months (LTM) sales figures for the firms going public have been converted into
dollars of January 2021 purchasing power using the Consumer Price Index. 8,775 IPOs from 1980-
2020 are used, with returns calculated through December 31, 2021. IPOs with an offer price below
$5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, REITs, closed end funds, natural resource partnerships, banks
and S&Ls, small best efforts offers, and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of the offer
date are excluded. Buy-and-hold returns are calculated from the first closing market price until the
earlier of the three-year anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and
2020). Market-adjusted returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. Style adjustments use firms
matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of CRSP listing and no
follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. The market-adjusted and style-adjusted returns are
the average buy-and-hold return on the IPOs minus the average compounded return on the
benchmark. For post-issue book value of equity numbers, I use the post-issue common equity
numbers from SDC with corrections by checking the prospectus, and for the remaining missing
numbers I use the equity book values reported for the nearest quarter after the IPO on
COMPUSTAT, and further missing numbers are calculated using the reported pre-IPO equity book
values plus the amount of the proceeds (assuming that overallotment option shares and costs of
issuing offset each other) times the fraction of the primary shares. For dual-class shares, the post-
issue book-to-market ratio is calculated using the larger of the post-issue number of shares reported
from SDC (with corrections to account for all share classes) and the total shares outstanding
reported from CRSP at end of the IPO date. Market capitalization (size) is calculated using the
first closing market price after the IPO and the post-issue number of shares outstanding. All returns
include dividends and capital gains, including the index returns.

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Sales (in 2021$) of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

Less than $1 billion 8,078 19.2% 22.5% -18.9% -7.9%

$1 billion and up 697 9.2% 38.2% 3.2% 6.2%

1980-2020 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

Note: The 3.2% 3-year market-adjusted buy-and-hold return for large companies corresponds to
an annualized market-adjusted return of 0.9% per year, with an average holding period of 2.9
years for the large companies, because 1.382/1.350=1.0237, and 1.02370.345=1.009. The 1.350 is
3.2% below the 38.2% average buy-and-hold return, and 0.345 is equal to 1/2.9. The -17.1% 3-
year market-adjusted buy-and-hold return for small (emerging growth) companies corresponds to
an annualized market-adjusted return of -6.5% assuming a 2.8 year average holding period.

50
 Table 16b (updated February 15, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by the Profitability of the Firm, 1980-2020

All Last Twelve Months (LTM) sales figures for the firms going public have been converted into
dollars of January 2021 purchasing power using the Consumer Price Index. 8,775 IPOs (including
the 2016 IPO of BATS Global Markets, which listed on BATS) from 1980-2020 are used, with
returns calculated through the end of December 31, 2021. IPOs with an offer price below $5.00
per share, unit offers, ADRs, REITs, closed end funds, natural resource partnerships, banks and
S&Ls, small best efforts offers, and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of the offer date
are excluded. Buy-and-hold returns are calculated from the first closing market price until the
earlier of the three-year anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and
2020). Market-adjusted returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. Style adjustments use firms
matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of CRSP listing and no
follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. The market-adjusted and style-adjusted returns are
the average buy-and-hold return on the IPOs minus the average compounded return on the
benchmark. For post-issue book value of equity numbers, I use the post-issue common equity
numbers from SDC with corrections by checking the prospectus, and for the remaining missing
numbers I use the equity book values reported for the nearest quarter after the IPO on
COMPUSTAT, and further missing numbers are calculated using the reported pre-IPO equity book
values plus the amount of the proceeds (assuming that overallotment option shares and costs of
issuing offset each other) times the fraction of the primary shares. For dual-class shares, the post-
issue book-to-market ratio is calculated using the larger of the post-issue number of shares reported
from SDC (with corrections to account for all share classes) and the total shares outstanding
reported from CRSP at end of the IPO date. Market capitalization (size) is calculated using the
first closing market price after the IPO and the post-issue number of shares outstanding. Earnings
per share (EPS) is for the pre-IPO last twelve months (LTM). All returns include dividends and
capital gains, including the index returns.

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Trailing LTM EPS of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

Unprofitable 3,575 26.3% 6.5% -25.2% -20.5%

Profitable 5,200 12.9% 35.6% -11.6% 2.6%

Sales less than $100 million ($2021)

Unprofitable 2,755 29.1% -3.5% -35.0% -27.3%
Profitable 2,531 14.7% 26.8% -24.4% -2.1%
All less than $100m 5,286 22.2% 11.0% -29.9% -15.2%
Sales more than $100 million ($2021)
Unprofitable 820 16.8% 39.8% 8.0% 2.3%
Profitable 2,669 11.3% 44.0% 0.4% 7.0%
All more than $100m 3,489 12.6% 43.0% 2.2% 5.9%

1980-2020 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

51
 Table 16c (updated March 4, 2021)
Long-run Returns Measured from the Offer Price on Tech and non-Tech Stock IPOs
Excluding the Internet Bubble, 1980-2019
Panel A: IPOs from 1980-2019, excluding 1999-2000, categorized by industry
Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
Industry of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Tech 2,504 18.6% 82.0% 33.1% 52.2%
Non-Tech 5,250 10.1% 36.4% -9.7% 3.0%
All 7,754 12.8% 51.1% 4.1% 18.9%

Panel B: Categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 1,821 18.9% 72.5% 20.6% 44.2%
Non-Tech 2,764 11.1% 24.1% -23.6% -5.1%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 683 17.6% 107.4% 66.6% 72.0%
Non-Tech 2,486 8.9% 50.1% 5.8% 12.1%

Panel C: Profitable issuers, categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 1,019 17.4% 71.1% 15.5% 43.2%
Non-Tech 1,469 10.6% 29.7% -22.0% 0.3%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 420 15.0% 108.8% 62.0% 71.9%
Non-Tech 2,070 9.1% 51.4% 5.7% 13.6%

Panel D: Unprofitable issuers, categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 802 20.8% 74.3% 27.1% 46.7%
Non-Tech 1,295 11.6% 17.6% -25.4% -11.3%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 263 21.6% 105.2% 73.8% 72.2%
Non-Tech 416 7.9% 43.9% 6.0 % 4.6%

52
 Table 16d (updated March 4, 2021)
Long-run Returns Measured from the First Closing Market Price on Tech and non-Tech
Stock IPOs Excluding the Internet Bubble, 1980-2019
Panel A: IPOs from 1980-2019, excluding 1999-2000, categorized by industry
Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
Industry of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Tech 2,504 18.6% 49.5% 0.6% 19.7%
Non-Tech 5,250 10.1% 25.1% -21.0% -8.3%
All 7,754 12.8% 32.9% -14.0% 0.7%

Panel B: Categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 1,821 18.9% 41.0% -10.9% 13.3%
Non-Tech 2,764 11.1% 13.2% -34.4% -16.0%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 683 17.6% 72.2% 31.3% 36.8%
Non-Tech 2,486 8.9% 38.2% -6.1% 0.2%

Panel C: Profitable issuers, categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 1,019 17.4% 43.0% -12.6% 15.2%
Non-Tech 1,469 10.6% 19.0% -32.7% -10.4%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 420 15.0% 76.7% 29.9% 39.9%
Non-Tech 2,070 9.1% 39.1% -6.5% 1.3%

Panel D: Unprofitable issuers, categorized by sales and industry

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day Market- Style-
LTM Sales of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Sales < $100 million
Tech 802 20.8% 38.3% -8.8% 10.8%
Non-Tech 1,295 11.6% 6.7% -36.3% -22.3%
Sales> $100 million
Tech 263 21.6% 64.9% 33.5% 31.9%
Non-Tech 416 7.9% 33.8% -4.1% -5.4%

53
 Table 16e (May 25, 2022)
Distribution of 3-year and 5-year Buy-and-Hold Returns on IPOs, 1975-2018
8,603 IPOs from 1975-2018 are used, with buy-and-hold returns calculated until the earlier of the
3-year or 5-year anniversary or the delisting date. All returns include dividends and capital gains.
IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, ADRs, REITs, closed end funds,
SPACs, natural resource partnerships, banks and S&Ls, small best efforts offers, and IPOs not
listed on CRSP within six months of the offer date are excluded. The average first-day return in
Panel A is 17.7%, with an average 3-year buy-and-hold return (BHR) of 25.2%, measured from
the first close, and 42.6%, measured from the offer price. In Panel B, the average first-day return
is 12.0%, with a subsequent average 3-year buy-and-hold return of 43.1%, measured from the first
close, and 59.5%, measured from the offer price. Sales is inflation-adjusted sales for the last twelve
months (LTM) prior to the IPO, in dollars of January 2022 purchasing power using the CPI.
Panel A: All 8,603 IPOs
3-year buy-and-hold From the first close From the offer price
return Number of IPOs Percentage Number of IPOs Percentage
BHR<-50% 3,178 36.9% 2,904 33.8%
-50%<BHR≤0% 1,858 21.6% 1,805 21.0%
0%<BHR≤50% 1,288 15.0% 1,290 15.0%
50%<BHR≤100% 838 9.7% 874 10.2%
100%<BHR≤200% 743 8.6% 856 9.9%
200%<BHR≤500% 538 6.3% 658 7.6%
500%<BHR≤1,000% 121 1.4% 154 1.8%
1,000%<BHR≤2,000% 27 0.3% 45 0.5%
2,000%<BHR≤3,000% 6 0.1% 10 0.1%
3,000%<BHR 6 0.1% 7 0.1%

1975-2015 8,603 100.0% 8,603 100.0%

Panel B: 3,564 IPOs with LTM Sales of $100 million or more ($2022)
3-year buy-and-hold From the first close From the offer price
return Number of IPOs Percentage Number of IPOs Percentage
BHR<-50% 853 23.9% 765 21.5%
-50%<BHR≤0% 792 22.2% 747 21.0%
0%<BHR≤50% 700 19.6% 675 18.9%
50%<BHR≤100% 483 13.6% 487 13.7%
100%<BHR≤200% 420 11.8% 490 13.7%
200%<BHR≤500% 262 7.5% 326 9.2%
500%<BHR≤1,000% 44 1.2% 55 1.5%
1,000%<BHR≤2,000% 8 0.2% 14 0.4%
2,000%<BHR≤3,000% 1 0.0% 4 0.1%
3,000%<BHR 1 0.0% 1 0.0%

1975-2018 3,564 100.0% 3,564 100.0%

54
 Table 16e (continued)

The average first-day return in Panel C is 17.7%, with an average 5-year buy-and-hold return
(BHR) of 43.1%, measured from the first close, and 63.0%, measured from the offer price. In Panel
D, the average first-day return is 12.0%, with a subsequent average 5-year buy-and-hold return of
65.1%, measured from the first close, and 84.5%, measured from the offer price. Sales is inflation-
adjusted sales for the last twelve months (LTM) prior to the IPO, in dollars of January 2022
purchasing power using the CPI. For the 2017 and 2018 cohorts, returns are calculated through
Dec. 31, 2021 unless an IPO was delisted earlier.

Panel C: All 8,603 IPOs from 1975-2018

5-year buy-and-hold From the first close From the offer price
return Number of IPOs Percentage Number of IPOs Percentage
BHR<-50% 3,534 41.1% 3,290 38.2%
-50%<BHR≤0% 1,547 18.0% 1,499 17.4%
0%<BHR≤50% 1,079 12.5% 1,081 12.6%
50%<BHR≤100% 734 8.5% 767 8.9%
100%<BHR≤200% 785 9.1% 853 9.9%
200%<BHR≤500% 636 7.4% 758 8.8%
500%<BHR≤1,000% 190 2.2% 222 2.6%
1,000%<BHR≤2,000% 75 0.9% 94 1.1%
2,000%<BHR≤3,000% 13 0.2% 26 0.3%
3,000%<BHR 10 0.1% 13 0.2%

1975-2018 8,603 100.0% 8,603 100.0%

Panel D: 3,564 IPOs with LTM Sales of $100 million or more ($2022)
5-year buy-and-hold From the first close From the offer price
return Number of IPOs Percentage Number of IPOs Percentage
BHR<-50% 997 28.0% 911 25.5%
-50%<BHR≤0% 676 19.0% 659 18.5%
0%<BHR≤50% 566 15.9% 535 15.0%
50%<BHR≤100% 422 11.8% 426 11.9%
100%<BHR≤200% 445 12.5% 474 13.3%
200%<BHR≤500% 336 9.4% 407 11.4%
500%<BHR≤1,000% 81 2.3% 95 2.7%
1,000%<BHR≤2,000% 36 1.0% 45 1.3%
2,000%<BHR≤3,000% 4 0.1% 10 0.3%
3,000%<BHR 1 0.0% 2 0.1%

1975-2018 3,564 100.0% 3,564 100.0%

55
 Table 16f (updated February 15, 2022)

Aftermarket Returns with and without Including the First-day Return

8,775 IPOs from 1980-2020 are used, with returns calculated through December 31, 2021. IPOs
with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, SPACs, ADRs, REITs, closed end funds,
natural resource partnerships, banks and S&Ls, small best efforts offers, and IPOs not listed on
CRSP within six months of the offer date are excluded. Buy-and-hold returns are calculated from
the first closing market price until the earlier of the three-year anniversary or the delisting date
(Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and 2020). Market-adjusted returns use the CRSP value-
weighted index. Style adjustments use firms matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with
at least five years of CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. The
market-adjusted and style-adjusted returns are the average buy-and-hold return on the IPOs minus
the average compounded return on the benchmark. Further details are reported int eh captions to
Tables 16a and 16b. Market capitalization (size) is calculated using the first closing market price
after the IPO and the post-issue number of shares outstanding.

Tables 16c and 16d report similar numbers, but those tables exclude IPOs from the internet bubble
years of 1999-2000
Panel A:
Long-run Returns Measured from the Offer Price on Tech and non-Tech IPOs, 1980-2020

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
Sector of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Tech 3,180 31.2% 56.4% 21.0% 31.9%
Non-Tech 5,595 11.1% 33.5% -10.5% -0.5%
All 8,775 18.4% 41.8% 0.9% 11.2%

Panel B:
Long-run Returns Measured from the First Close on Tech and non-Tech IPOs, 1980-2020

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
Sector of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted
Tech 3,180 31.2% 26.6% -8.8% 2.1%
Non-Tech 5,595 11.1% 22.1% -21.9% -11.9%
All 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

56
 Table 17 (updated February 14, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-backing or Buyout Fund-backing

All Last Twelve Months (LTM) sales figures for the firms going public have been converted into
dollars of January 2021 purchasing power using the Consumer Price Index. IPOs from 1980-2020
are used, with returns calculated through the end of December 2021. In Panel A, the sample size
is 8,775 firms. Growth capital-backed IPOs are included in the VC-backed category. IPOs with an
offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, small best efforts offerings, ADRs, REITs, closed-
end funds, natural resource limited partnerships, banks and S&Ls, and IPOs not listed on CRSP
within six months of the offer date are excluded. In Panel B, one additional screen is implemented,
reducing the sample size. This additional screen is that the last twelve months (LTM) sales of the
issuing firm is at least $50 million (2021 purchasing power). Buy-and-hold returns are calculated
from the first close until the earlier of the three-year anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of
2021 for IPOs from 2020). Market-adjusted returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. Style
adjustments use firms matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of
CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. All returns include dividends
and capital gains, including the index returns. Jerry Cao of Sun Yat-sen University has assisted in
providing data on the classification of IPOs as buyout-backed. Growth capital-backed IPOs are
classified as VC-backed.

Panel A: IPOs from 1980-2020 categorized by venture capital backing

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

VC-backed 3,487 27.2% 28.7% -8.1% 1.0%

NonVC-backed 5,288 12.6% 20.4% -23.1% -12.1%
NonVC and nonBuyout 4,137 13.6% 16.9% -29.9% -15.2%

1980-2020 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

Note: The nonVC- and nonBuyout-backed IPOs do not include a minimum sales screen, unlike in Panel B.

Panel B: IPOs with at least $50 million in LTM sales (2021 purchasing power)
from 1980-2020 categorized by private equity (buyout fund) backing

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Buyout-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

Buyout-backed 1,090 9.1% 34.5% 2.6% 2.3%

NonBuyout-backed 3,791 15.6% 40.9% -3.5% 3.7%

All 4,881 14.1% 39.5% -2.1% 3.4%

57
 Table 17a (updated February 15, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-, Growth Capital-, or Buyout Fund-backing

8,775 IPOs from 1980-2020 are used, with returns calculated through the end of December 2020.
Buy-and-hold returns are calculated from the first closing price until the earlier of the three-year
anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and 2020). Market-adjusted
returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. All returns include dividends and capital gains. Style
adjustments use firms matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of
CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. This table is an updated version
of Table 3 of my “Growth Capital-backed IPOs” published in the 2015 Financial Review. Growth
capital-backed IPOs are defined to be IPOs with a financial sponsor that is financing investments
in tangible assets and/or acquisitions are a major part of its growth strategy. Buyouts involve the
financial sponsor taking control by buying out prior shareholders. Corporate venture capital and
angel investors are not included as financial sponsors.

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 3,057 29.0% 25.8% -10.0% -1.4%

Growth capital-backed 430 14.3% 49.5% 5.0% 10.7%
Buyout-backed 1,153 9.1% 33.0% 1.3% 0.0%

Financial Sponsored 4,638 22.7% 29.8% -5.8% 0.1%

Non-Financial Sponsored 4,137 13.6% 16.9% -29.9% -14.5%

All 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

Note: The high average 3-year buy-and-hold return for growth capital-backed IPOs is partly attributable, in a
mechanical sense, to the five IPOs with the highest buy-and-hold returns in this subsample: The May 10, 1984 IPO
of restaurant chain This Can’t Be Yogurt (4,076.6%); the April 10, 1997 IPO of middleware software developer and
distributor BEA Systems (2,562.2%); the November 15, 1989 IPO of original equipment manufacturer Solectron
(944.0%); the April 24, 1996 IPO of outdoor advertising (billboards) operator Outdoor Systems (935.1%); the
February 9, 1983 IPO of health care provider United States Health Care (636.6%); and the September 19, 1989 IPO
of health care provider Vencor (635.8%).

58
 Table 18 (updated February 15, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by VC-backing, by Subperiod

The sample is composed of 8,775 IPOs from 1980-2020, with returns calculated through the end
of December 2021. Growth capital-backed IPOs are classified as venture capital (VC)-backed in
all panels. IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, small best efforts offerings,
ADRs, REITs, closed end funds, SPACs, natural resource limited partnerships, banks and S&Ls,
and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of the offer date are excluded. Buy-and-hold
returns are calculated from the first closing market price until the earlier of the three-year
anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and 2020). Market-adjusted
returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. All returns include dividends and capital gains. Style
adjustments use firms matched by market cap and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of
CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in the prior five years. Market capitalization (size) is
calculated using the first closing market price after the IPO. All returns include dividends and
capital gains, including the index returns.

Panel A: IPOs from 1980-2020 categorized by venture capital backing

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 3,487 27.2% 28.7% -8.1% 0.4%

NonVC-backed 5,288 12.6% 20.4% -23.1% -11.3%

All 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.1% -6.8%

59
 Panel B: IPOs from 1980-1989

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 514 8.6% 31.9% -13.9% 14.0%

NonVC-backed 1,533 6.8% 19.3% -25.5% -1.8%

All 2,047 7.2% 22.5% -22.6% 2.2%

Panel C: IPOs from 1990-1998

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 1,267 17.3% 60.9% -0.9% 27.1%

NonVC-backed 2,347 13.5% 28.3% -31.8% -15.0%

All 3,614 14.8% 39.8% -21.0% -0.2%

Panel D: IPOs from 1999-2000

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 526 80.8% -62.3% -40.5% -62.6%

NonVC-backed 330 38.8% -38.5% -17.8% -53.1%

All 856 64.6% -53.1% -31.8% -58.9%

Panel E: IPOs from 2001-2020

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day Market- Style-
VC-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

VC-backed 1,180 22.0% 33.4% 1.1% -7.2%

NonVC-backed 1,078 10.9% 22.9% -2.2% -4.0%

All 2,258 16.7% 28.4% -0.5% -5.7%

60
 Table 19: Updated Table I of Ritter and Welch 2002 Journal of Finance article

Number of IPOs, First-day Returns, and Long Run Performance, IPOs from 1980-2020
(Updated May 27, 2022)

The equally weighted (EW) average first-day return is measured from the offer price to the first
CRSP-listed closing price. EW average three-year buy-and-hold percentage returns (capital gains
plus dividends) are calculated from the first closing market price to the earlier of the three-year
anniversary price, the delisting price, or December 31, 2021. Buy-and-hold returns for initial
public offerings (IPOs) occurring after Dec. 31, 2020 are not calculated. Market-adjusted returns
are calculated as the buy-and-hold return on an IPO minus the compounded daily return on the
CRSP value-weighted index of Amex, Nasdaq, and NYSE firms. Style-adjusted buy-and-hold
returns are calculated as the difference between the return on an IPO and a style-matched firm.
For each IPO, a non-IPO matching firm that has been CRSP-listed for at least five years with the
closest market capitalization (size) and book-to-market ratio as the IPO is used. Market
capitalization is calculated using the first closing market price after the IPO. If this stock is delisted
prior to the IPO return’s ending date, or if it conducts a follow-on stock offering, a replacement
matching firm is spliced in on a point-forward basis. IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per
share, unit offers, small best efforts offers, natural resource limited partnerships, REITs, closed-
end funds, banks and S&Ls, ADRs, and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of issuing
have been excluded. Data is from Thomson Financial Securities Data, with supplements from
Dealogic and other sources, and corrections by the authors. The number of IPOs per year is much
lower for the early 1980s than in the 1995 Journal of Finance article “The New Issues Puzzle” by
Loughran and Ritter because that paper used a $1.00 offer price screen. The number is larger than
in the 2002 Journal of Finance article “A Review of IPO Activity, Pricing, and Allocations” due
to various data corrections and the back-filling of Nasdaq-listed foreign issuers by CRSP.

The 1998 sample size of 283 IPOs is higher than in other tables because of corrections for two
IPOs that previously screened out.

61
 Average Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return
Number First-day One-year Market- Style-
Year of IPOs Return Return IPOs adjusted adjusted

1980 71 14.3% 28.7% 89.8% 37.0% 18.5%

1981 192 5.9% -10.5% 12.3% -27.0% 11.0%
1982 77 11.0% 101.8% 37.5% -31.5% -12.0%
1983 451 9.9% -19.2% 15.9% -37.7% -4.4%
1984 171 3.7% 20.0% 50.2% -28.5% 29.0%
1985 186 6.4% 23.6% 5.6% -41.3% -12.3%
1986 393 6.2% 9.5% 16.9% -22.6% -1.3%
1987 285 5.6% -21.5% -2.6% -19.1% -11.2%
1988 105 5.5% 28.7% 58.0% 9.7% 38.7%
1989 116 8.0% -5.5% 48.1% 13.2% 7.2%
1990 110 10.8% 4.0% 9.7% -35.9% -38.4%
1991 286 11.9% 10.5% 31.2% -1.8% 5.8%
1992 412 10.3% 20.5% 37.4% -0.2% 11.1%
1993 510 12.7% 3.0% 44.1% -8.7% -9.5%
1994 402 9.6% 27.8% 78.0% -5.7% -0.9%
1995 462 21.4% 26.5% 28.6% -58.0% -24.7%
1996 677 17.2% 7.1% 25.2% -56.8% 7.0%
1997 474 14.0% 8.0% 58.3% -2.0% 22.0%
1998 283 21.8% 18.4% 22.9% 5.1% -4.9%
1999 476 71.2% 22.1% -47.6% -32.5% -60.6%
2000 380 56.4% -52.9% -60.1% -30.9% -56.9%
2001 80 14.0% -14.3% 18.0% 14.6% -27.8%
2002 66 9.1% 3.1% 68.6% 39.0% -0.4%
2003 63 11.7% 25.7% 34.0% -7.7% -11.2%
2004 173 12.3% 17.8% 51.4% 6.9% -7.0%
2005 159 10.3% 19.0% 14.6% 3.1% -2.5%
2006 157 12.1% 21.4% -28.8% -11.1% -4.5%
2007 159 14.0% -28.4% -16.5% -0.4% 0.5%
2008 21 5.7% -34.4% 11.4% 8.1% 5.1%
2009 41 9.8% 11.5% 37.0% -5.1% -18.3%
2010 91 9.4% 15.7% 36.4% -9.6% -18.5%
2011 81 13.9% -12.2% 38.6% -8.7% -11.6%
2012 93 17.7% 35.7% 81.9% 31.8% 33.4%
2013 158 20.9% 12.8% 12.1% -14.1% -16.1%
2014 206 15.5% 20.1% 17.1% -9.7% -12.3%
2015 118 19.2% -23.8% 24.5% -9.9% -26.3%
2016 75 14.5% 23.3% 70.5% 29.5% 27.0%
2017 106 12.9% 32.4% 52.8% 22.6% 37.1%
2018 134 18.6% -6.8% 79.1% 23.4% 36.7%
2019 112 23.5% 34.1% 71.2% 9.8% 6.6%
2020 165 41.6% 9.7% -10.2% -54.0% -65.4%
1980-1989 2,047 7.2% 3.4% 22.5% -22.6% 2.2%
1990-1994 1,720 11.2% 14.3% 46.1% -6.6% -1.9%
1995-1998 1,896 18.1% 13.7% 33.9% -34.2% 1.3%
1999-2000 856 64.6% -11.2% -53.1% -31.8% -58.9%
2001-2020 2,258 16.7% 9.8% 28.4% -0.5% -5.7%

1980-2020 8,777 18.4% 8.0% 23.7% -17.2% -6.8%

62
 Table 20
Returns on IPOs during the five years after issuing, for IPOs from 1980-2019
These tables show that IPOs have underperformed other firms of the same size (market cap) by an
average of 2.4% per year during the five years after issuing, not including the first-day return. The
underperformance relative to other firms of the same size and book-to-market ratio has averaged 1.6% per
year. Returns are through Dec. 31, 2020. (updated March 4, 2021)

Table 20-1
Percentage returns on IPOs from 1980-2019 during the first five years after issuing
First Second Geometric
six six First Second Third Fourth Fifth Mean
months months Year year year year Year years 1-5

IPO firms 6.5% 1.1% 8.0% 7.4% 12.9% 19.7% 10.9% 11.7%
Size-matched 5.3% 5.7% 11.4% 14.6% 15.3% 16.4% 12.7% 14.1%
Difference 1.2% -4.6% -3.4% -7.2% -2.4% 3.3% -2.2% -2.4%

IPO firms 6.5% 1.1% 8.0% 7.4% 12.9% 19.7% 10.9% 11.7%
Size & BM- 3.9% 4.7% 8.8% 13.2% 12.5% 17.6% 12.8% 12.9%
Matched
Difference 2.6% -3.6% -0.8% -5.8% 0.4% 2.1% -1.9% -1.2%

No. of IPOs 8,610 8,588 8,610 8,461 7,676 6,716 5,883

All returns are equally weighted average returns for all IPOs that are traded on Nasdaq, the Amex (now NYSE
MKT), or the NYSE at the start of a period. For the first and third columns, the returns are measured from the
closing market price on the first day of CRSP-reported trading until the sixth-month or one-year anniversary. For
years 2-5, each year the portfolios are rebalanced to equal weights. If an issuing firm is delisted within a year, its
return for that year is calculated by compounding the CRSP value-weighted market index for the rest of the year.
For the size-matched returns, each IPO is matched with the nonissuing firm having the same or next higher market
capitalization (using the closing market price on the first day of trading for the IPO, and the market capitalization at
the end of the previous month for the matching firms). For the size & BM-matched returns, each IPO with a book-
to-market ratio higher than zero is matched with a nonissuing firm in the same size decile (using NYSE firms only
for determining the decile breakpoints) having the closest book-to-market ratio. Each IPO with a zero or smaller
book-to-market ratio is matched with a nonissuing firm of a book-to-market ratio of zero or smaller having the
closest market capitalization. For the IPOs, book-to-market ratios are calculated using the first recorded post-issue
book value and the post-issue market cap calculated using the closing market price on the first CRSP-listed day of
trading. For nonissuing firms, the Compustat-listed book value of equity for the most recent fiscal year ending at
least four months prior to the IPO date is used, along with the market cap at the close of trading at month-end prior
to the month of the IPO with which it is matched. Nonissuing firms are those that have been listed on the Amex-
Nasdaq-NYSE for at least five years, without issuing equity for cash during that time. If a nonissuer subsequently
issues equity, it is still used as the matching firm. If a nonissuer gets delisted prior to the delisting (or the fifth
anniversary), the second-closest matching firm on the original IPO date is substituted, on a point-forward basis. For
firms with multiple classes of stock outstanding, market cap is calculated using the offer price and the total number
of shares outstanding across all classes of stock as reported in Compustat. Firms with multiple classes of stock are
excluded as potential matching candidates. The sample size is 8,610 IPOs from 1980-2019, excluding IPOs with an
offer price of less than $5.00, ADRs, REITs, acquisition funds, closed-end funds, banks and S&Ls, unit offers, small
best efforts deals, and oil & gas limited partnerships. For the 1980s and later, IPOs that are not listed on CRSP
within six months of the IPO are excluded. For IPOs from 1980 and later, if book value numbers are missing so that
no style-matched firm is available as a benchmark, the value-weighted market return is used for the matching firm
return. Returns are measured through December 31, 2020. For partial event-years that end on this date, the last
partial year is deleted from the computations. For example, for an IPO on March 15, 2019, its first-year return is
included, but not the second-year return.

63
Table 20-2
Percentage returns on IPOs from 1980-1989 during the first five years after issuing

First Second Geometric

six six First Second Third Fourth Fifth mean
months months year year Year year year years 1-5

IPO firms 3.6% -0.9% 3.4% 9.6% 12.1% 2.3% 8.1% 7.1%
Size-matched 3.7% 3.4% 7.0% 16.6% 16.7% 7.3% 10.1% 11.5%
Difference -0.1% -4.1% -3.6% -7.0% -4.6% -5.0% -2.0% -4.4%

IPO firms 3.6% -0.9% 3.4% 9.6% 12.1% 2.3% 8.1% 7.1%
Size & BM- -0.1% 1.4% 0.9% 14.6% 9.4% 4.4% 11.2% 7.9%
Matched
Difference 3.7% -2.3% 2.5% -5.0% 2.7% -2.1% -3.1% -0.8%

No. of IPOs 2,048 2,039 2,047 2,013 1,868 1,706 1,557

Table 20-3
Percentage returns on IPOs from 1990-1999 during the first five years after issuing

First Second Geometric

six six First Second Third Fourth Fifth mean
months months year year Year year year years 1-5

IPO firms 12.9% 3.6% 15.0% 7.8% 9.2% 25.5% 12.9% 13.9%
Size-matched 6.6% 8.6% 15.8% 17.8% 16.3% 20.4% 15.9% 17.2%
Difference 6.3% -5.0% -0.8% -10.0% -7.1% 5.2% -3.0% -3.3%

IPO firms 12.9% 3.6% 15.0% 7.8% 9.1% 25.5% 12.9% 13.9%
Size & BM- 7.2% 7.4% 14.9% 15.7% 12.3% 24.2% 13.5% 16.1%
matched
Difference 5.7% -3.8% 0.1% -7.9% -3.2% 1.3% -0.6% -2.2%

No. of IPOs 4,090 4,084 4,090 4,017 3,638 3,188 2,760

64
Table 20-4
Percentage returns on IPOs from 2000-2019 during the first five years after issuing

First Second Geometric

six six First Second Third Fourth Fifth mean
months months year year year year year years 1-5

IPO firms -1.9% -1.4% 0.2% 4.8% 19.8% 25.6% 10.1% 11.7%
Size-matched 4.3% 2.9% 7.8% 7.5% 12.4% 17.9% 9.5% 11.0%
Difference -6.2% -4.3% -7.6% -2.7% 7.4% 7.7% 0.6% 0.7%

IPO firms -1.9% -1.4% 0.2% 4.8% 19.8% 25.6% 10.1% 11.7%
Size & BM- 1.8% 2.9% 5.2% 7.7% 15.7% 18.2% 13.3% 11.9%
matched
Difference -3.7% -4.3% -5.0% -2.9% 4.1% 7.4% -3.2% -0.2%

No. of IPOs 2,475 2,462 2,473 2,431 2,170 1,822 1,566

Returns are through December 31, 2020. Thus, the fifth-year returns are only for those IPOs from 2000 to 2015, and
the fourth-year returns are only for those IPOs from 2000 to 2016, etc. Note that the fifth-year returns are available
only for those IPOs that survived for at least four years.

65
 Table 21 (updated May 27, 2022)
The Mean and Median Percentage Public Float, 1980-2021
The public float is the number of shares issued in the IPO (not including overallotment shares) divided by
the post-issue number of shares outstanding in all share classes, multiplied by 100%.
Number Public Float, % Percentiles
Year of IPOs Mean Median 25th 75th
1980 71 31.0 28.5 20.3 34.2
1981 192 27.4 25.5 20.0 34.4
1982 77 26.7 25.1 19.5 33.2
1983 451 30.0 28.5 21.9 35.8
1984 171 29.1 28.0 21.8 35.7
1985 186 32.0 30.7 23.7 38.3
1986 393 32.0 30.2 22.5 38.2
1987 285 31.5 29.1 22.0 39.2
1988 105 26.6 24.1 19.4 32.0
1989 116 31.3 29.9 23.0 34.8
1990 110 32.5 30.5 23.5 38.8
1991 286 33.6 31.7 25.3 38.4
1992 412 35.4 33.3 25.5 41.4
1993 510 35.6 33.3 25.9 42.4
1994 402 34.3 32.1 25.2 40.3
1995 462 32.5 30.5 23.9 38.8
1996 677 31.4 30.1 22.6 38.1
1997 474 32.9 30.2 23.7 39.5
1998 283 30.7 27.9 20.7 37.0
1999 476 23.1 20.5 15.5 28.4
2000 380 21.0 19.4 14.0 25.2
2001 79 26.2 21.9 17.7 33.4
2002 66 31.3 26.9 20.3 35.7
2003 63 33.4 29.9 21.0 38.9
2004 173 31.4 26.1 21.9 35.3
2005 159 34.6 31.5 24.9 42.4
2006 157 30.2 28.2 22.8 35.2
2007 159 28.4 26.3 19.4 33.9
2008 21 29.9 27.7 21.3 39.3
2009 41 30.0 28.0 19.4 34.2
2010 91 30.9 27.9 20.0 35.9
2011 81 24.6 22.5 15.8 29.0
2012 93 23.7 22.3 14.7 27.2
2013 158 25.0 23.7 17.6 30.0
2014 206 26.7 26.2 19.3 33.0
2015 118 25.0 23.0 17.3 31.2
2016 75 22.2 23.0 14.7 27.9
2017 106 21.8 21.5 15.7 26.1
2018 134 22.5 21.2 15.6 27.7
2019 112 21.1 19.8 14.1 25.9
2020 165 22.0 22.0 15.6 28.1
2021 311 18.2 16.7 11.2 23.8
1980-2021 9,088 29.4 27.4 20.1 35.9

66
 Table 22
Non-distress Delistings within Three Years of the IPO
This is an updated Table 3 of the 2013 Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis article
“Where Have All the IPOs Gone?” by Xiaohui Gao, Jay R. Ritter, and Zhongyan Zhu.

Number of acquisitions and buyouts by

No. of cohort IPOs Financial
No of Delisted for Strategic Buyer Buyer
Year IPOs Non-distress reasons Public Private Percentage Public Private
1980 71 2 2 0 2.7% 0 0
1981 193 13 11 1 6.1% 0 1
1982 77 6 4 2 7.7% 0 0
1983 451 29 27 2 6.4% 0 0
1984 171 16 14 2 9.1% 0 0
1985 186 18 14 2 8.6% 0 2
1986 393 40 31 5 9.2% 0 4
1987 285 44 26 4 10.6% 0 14
1988 105 7 7 0 6.9% 0 0
1989 116 8 8 0 7.1% 0 0
1990 110 5 4 1 4.5% 0 0
1991 286 9 6 3 3.1% 0 0
1992 412 36 34 2 8.7% 0 0
1993 509 44 38 4 8.2% 0 2
1994 403 42 37 4 10.1% 0 1
1995 461 79 72 6 16.9% 0 1
1996 676 115 101 11 16.6% 0 3
1997 474 82 69 6 15.8% 0 7
1998 282 40 33 3 12.8% 0 4
1999 477 106 96 8 21.8% 0 2
2000 381 56 51 4 14.4% 0 1
2001 79 8 8 0 10.1% 0 0
2002 66 11 10 1 16.7% 0 0
2003 62 8 7 0 11.3% 0 1
2004 174 24 21 0 12.1% 0 1
2005 160 24 19 4 14.4% 0 1
2006 157 19 16 1 10.8% 0 2
2007 159 17 14 2 10.7% 2 1
2008 21 3 3 0 14.3% 0 0
2009 41 6 4 1 14.6% 0 1
2010 91 8 3 2 8.8% 0 1
2011 81 7 0 0 8.6% 0 2
2012 93 14 0 0 15.1% 0 2
2013 157 14 1 0 8.9% 0 0
2014 207 5 1 0 2.4% 0 1
2015 115 0 0 0 1
2016 74
2017 108
2018
2019
2020
1980-2020 8,360 967 794 81 11.4% 4 56

67
 Table 23 (updated May 18, 2022)
Dual Class IPOs
This table lists the number of IPOs each year that have dual class shares among tech IPOs and among
non-tech IPOs. The sample is IPOs with an offer price of at least $5.00, excluding ADRs, unit offers,
closed-end funds, REITs, natural resource limited partnerships, small best efforts offers, banks and S&Ls,
and stocks not listed on CRSP (CRSP includes Amex, NYSE, and NASDAQ stocks).

Tech IPOs Non-tech IPOs All IPOs

Dual Total % Dual Total % Dual Total %
1980 0 22 0% 1 49 2.0% 1 71 1.4%
1981 2 72 2.8% 4 120 3.3% 6 192 3.1%
1982 0 42 0% 0 35 0.0% 0 77 0.0%
1983 3 173 1.7% 4 278 1.4% 7 451 1.6%
1984 2 50 4.0% 5 121 4.1% 7 171 4.1%
1985 1 37 2.7% 6 149 4.0% 7 186 3.8%
1986 3 77 3.9% 21 316 6.6% 24 393 6.1%
1987 1 59 1.7% 23 226 10.2% 24 285 8.4%
1988 4 28 10.7% 8 77 10.4% 12 105 11.4%
1989 1 35 2.9% 5 81 6.2% 6 116 5.2%
1990 0 32 0% 9 78 11.5% 9 110 8.2%
1991 6 71 9.9% 18 215 8.4% 24 286 8.4%
1992 4 115 1.7% 18 297 6.1% 22 412 5.3%
1993 3 127 2.4% 30 383 7.8% 33 510 6.5%
1994 7 115 6.1% 26 287 9.1% 33 402 8.2%
1995 8 205 3.9% 22 257 8.6% 30 462 6.5%
1996 14 276 5.8% 44 401 11.0% 58 677 8.6%
1997 10 174 5.7% 40 300 13.3% 50 474 10.5%
1998 8 113 7.1% 21 168 12.5% 29 281 10.3%
1999 22 370 5.9% 19 106 17.9% 41 476 8.6%
2000 18 260 7.3% 7 120 5.8% 25 380 6.6%
2001 2 23 8.7% 6 57 10.5% 8 80 10.0%
2002 1 20 10.0% 11 46 23.9% 12 66 18.2%
2003 1 18 16.7% 5 45 11.1% 6 63 9.5%
2004 3 61 4.9% 9 112 8.0% 12 173 6.9%
2005 9 45 20.0% 13 114 11.4% 22 159 13.8%
2006 1 48 2.1% 10 109 9.2% 11 157 7.0%
2007 5 76 6.6% 13 83 15.7% 18 159 11.3%
2008 0 6 0% 3 15 20.0% 3 21 14.3%
2009 2 14 14.3% 3 27 11.1% 5 41 12.2%
2010 2 33 6.1% 7 58 12.1% 9 91 9.9%
2011 5 36 13.9% 8 45 17.8% 13 81 16.0%
2012 6 40 15.0% 9 53 17.0% 15 93 16.1%
2013 5 45 11.1% 23 113 20.4% 28 158 17.7%
2014 3 53 5.7% 18 153 11.8% 21 206 10.2%
2015 14 38 36.8% 8 80 10.0% 22 118 18.6%
2016 5 21 23.8% 4 54 7.4% 9 75 12.0%
2017 13 30 43.3% 17 76 22.4% 30 106 28.3%
2018 14 39 35.9% 13 95 13.7% 27 134 20.1%
2019 13 37 35.1% 12 75 16.0% 25 112 22.3%
2020 19 44 43.2% 14 121 11.6% 33 165 20.0%
2021 55 118 46.2% 46 193 23.8% 101 311 32.5%
1980-21 295 3,298 8.9% 583 5,788 10.1% 878 9,086 9.7%

68
 Table 24 (May 18, 2022)

Long-run Returns on IPOs Categorized by Dual Class Status

8,775 IPOs from 1980-2020 are used, with returns calculated through the end of December 2021.
IPOs with an offer price below $5.00 per share, unit offers, small best efforts offerings, ADRs,
REITs, closed-end funds, natural resource limited partnerships (all of which have dual class
structures), banks and S&Ls, and IPOs not listed on CRSP within six months of the offer date are
excluded. Buy-and-hold returns are calculated from the first close until the earlier of the three-year
anniversary or the delisting date (Dec. 31 of 2021 for IPOs from 2019 and 2020). Market-adjusted
returns use the CRSP value-weighted index. Style adjustments use firms matched by market cap
and book-to-market ratio with at least five years of CRSP listing and no follow-on equity issues in
the prior five years. All returns include dividends and capital gains, including the index returns.
Firms with three or more classes of shares are classified as dual class. Firms with pre-IPO
convertible preferred that converted into common at the time of the IPO are classified based on
the pro forma (post-conversion) share structure.

Panel A: IPOs from 1980-2020 categorized by dual class status

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Dual class or not of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

Dual class 777 17.7% 45.0% 6.0% 3.8%

Single class 7,998 18.5% 21.6% -19.4% -7.9%

1980-2020 8,775 18.4% 23.7% -17.2% -6.8%

Panel B: IPOs from 1980-2020 categorized by dual class and tech status

Average Average 3-year Buy-and-hold Return

Number First-day
Buyout-backed or not of IPOs Return IPOs Market-adjusted Style-adjusted

Tech stocks
Dual class 240 33.7% 73.7% 41.9% 34.1%
Single class 2,941 31.0% 22.8% -13.0% -0.6%

All tech stocks 3,181 31.2% 26.6% -8.8% 2.1%

Non-tech stocks
Dual class 537 10.5% 32.2% -10.1% -9.7%
Single class 5,057 11.2% 21.0% -23.2% -12.1%

All non-tech stocks 5,594 11.1% 22.0% -22.0% -11.9%

69
 Figure 1

IPO Turnover Categorized by Time Period and First-Day Return, 1983-2018

150%

120%

90%

60%

30% 2001-2018
1999-2000

0% 1990-1998
Return ≤ 0%
0% < Return ≤ 1983-1989
10% 10% < Return ≤
60% Return > 60%

Turnover is calculated as the CRSP–reported first day volume divided by the number of shares
issued (global issuance, excluding over allotment options). Nasdaq volume numbers are divided
by 2 for 1983-January 2001, by 1.8 for the rest of 2001, and by 1.6 for 2002-2003 to make them
comparable to Amex and NYSE volume. The four subperiods are 1983-1989, 1990-1998, 1999-
2000, and 2001-2018. Returns are the first-day return, measured from the offer price to the closing
market price. Closed-end funds, REITs, SPACs, unit offers, all IPOs by foreign firms, and bank
and S&L IPOs are excluded. Panel C of Table 3 reports the numbers that are graphed here.

70
 Figure 2: See Table 9 for details.

Percentage of IPOs with Negative EPS and Percentage of Tech Stocks, 1980-2021
90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Percentage of IPOs with EPS<0 Percentage of Tech Stocks

71
 Figure 3

The public float is the number of shares issued in the IPO divided by the post-issue number of shares outstanding in all
share classes. See Table 21 for details.

Mean and Median Public Float as a Percentage of Post-Issue Shares Outstanding, 1980-2021
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

Mean Median

72
Figure 4: See Table 1 for details.

73
 Figure 5: The number of IPOs and average first-day returns per year, 1980-2021

800 80%

700 70%

600 60%

Average First-day Returns

500 50%
Number of IPOs

400 40%

300 30%

200 20%

100 10%

0 0%

The number of IPOs (bars) and equally weighted average first-day return, by year, for 1980-2021 for operating companies
going public with traditional IPOs on major U.S. exchanges (ADRs, penny stocks, etc. are excluded. See Table 1 for details.)

74
 Figure 6: Number and Percentage of U.S. IPOs from Chinese Companies, 1990-2021

35 40%

30 35%

30%

Percentage of Chinese IPOs

25
NUmber of Chinese IPOs

25%
20
20%
15
15%

10
10%

5 5%

0 0%

Number of Chinese IPOs (Left) Percentage of Chinese IPOs (Right)

Table 14 gives the numbers plotted here. In this figure, ADRs are included for both
the number of Chinese IPOs and the overall number of IPOs.

75