Stocks Slow, but IPO Market Chugs Along

The stock market had a rough week. But the IPO market didn’t skip a beat.

Three more companies priced initial public offerings this week, capped by today’s GoGo (NASDAQ: GOGO) debut. With a week to go in June, that brings the month’s total to eight IPOs. That’s well shy of the 30 IPOs in May, the most prolific month for new stocks in six years. But it’s already double last June’s total of just four IPOs.

And there are likely to be a few more new public companies before the month is out.

According to the IPO web site Renaissance Capital, 13 more companies are currently in the IPO hopper. Not all of them will make their debuts next week. But at the very least, we’re likely to get to double-digit IPOs before the month is out. Five more would make it the most productive June since 2007.

This week’s huge pullback after Ben Bernanke talked about reining in QE3 could scare a few of those companies off. Results for the three companies that went public this week have been mixed.

Gogo, a provider of in-flight WiFi on commercial jets, fell 8% in its debut today. Part of its decline, however, could be chalked up to the stock pricing at the high end of its expected range at $17 a share.

Biotech company bluebird bio (NASDAQ: BLUE) has also struggled since going public on Wednesday, falling nearly 3% from its $17 IPO price.

However, this week’s other IPO – PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTCT), another biotech – is up 7.5% despite debuting on Thursday, the worst day for U.S. markets all year.

So there are no sweeping conclusions to draw from those three debuts. For now, the IPO market remains red hot.

We’ll know next week if it’s going to stay that way.

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