US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers

Private equity IPOs are on a roll.

KinderCare Learning Companies (NYSE: KLC) went public this week, a win for PE owner Partners Group. The company priced below the midpoint and finished the week with an +18.4% gain. KinderCare is a leading US provider of early childhood education, with about 150,000 enrolled kids. While its growth and margins are below its closest comp (BFAM), it priced at a big enough discount to give investors a margin of safety.

Biotech/med-tech is another re-emerging IPO theme, and three new stocks began trading on Friday. Device maker CeriBell (Nasdaq: CBLL) priced above the range and popped +47.1%, the week’s best performer. Asthma biotech Upstream Bio (Nasdaq: UPB) popped +29.4%, pitching a novel antibody. RNA biotech CAMP4 Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CAMP) priced well below the range and broke issue.

Notably, one large deal didn’t get done, Brazilian lubricants maker Moove. The company blamed market conditions, though a recent decline in sales and its dependence on ExxonMobil are more likely culprits. Insider selling from Cosan and CVC may have magnified investor misgivings.

No major pricings next week, though we should see a few more deals join the October calendar. News hit that recent filer Cerebras Systems (Nasdaq: CBRS) may push back its listing as regulators review its relationship with top customer G42.

It’s easy to get lost in day-to-day price movements, so I thought I’d take a step back and look at the historical chart for the Renaissance IPO Index, which turned 15 this year. With a basket of exclusively new stocks, it’s now the benchmark for the US IPO market.

The IPO Index rose +3.0% this week, beating the S&P 500’s +1.1% return, driven by the tech sector. Top performer Astera Labs spiked +27.4% when it announced new high-speed data center switches built for AI workloads. The week’s bottom performer, Chinese EV developer ZEEKR, traded off -8.0%.

When you see a hot IPO like Astera, put it on your watchlist and keep an eye on it in the months following the IPO: You may find a buying opportunity after the initial hype fades.