Inphi shares climb on first day
Shares of Inphi Corp., the Santa Clara-based chipmaker with big operations in Westlake Village, shot up nearly 28 percent to close at $15.30 after they hit the market Nov. 11.
Shares of the initial public offering made their debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IPHI. The 6.8 million shares hit the market at $12, the top of the expected pricing range, and the firm raised a total of $81.6 million. With the price increase, Inphi’s market capitalization is more than $104 million.
The rising value of shares signals a successful offering during a volatile year for the markets, experts said.
“The bottom line is that it needs to go up,” said Yulun Wang, CEO of InTouch Technologies, a medical robot in company in Goleta that is watching how the markets responds to IPOs closely because it has plans to file for one of its own. “How much up probably depends on each investor, but it needs to be trading upwards.”
IPOs have been tough this year because the markets have been unpredictable.
“It takes months to go public, and if you don’t time it right, obviously you can be negatively impacted by a downturn that may just be happening for two or three weeks,” said Brent Reinke, a corporate partner in the Westlake Village office of Musick, Peeler & Garrett.
But Inphi appears to have bucked market trends on its opening day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both finished the day down slightly.
Inphi said it gave its underwriters a 30-day option to buy about 1 million more shares to cover any over-allotments. Morgan Stanley & Co., Deutsche Bank Securities and Jefferies & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, Inphi said. Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Needham & Company are acting as co-managers.
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