Uber's First Day On Wall Street

With co-founder Travis Kalanick watching from the floor, Uber Technologies Inc UBER opened for trading at $42 per share — after pricing its IPO at $45. The stock listed at the low end of its expected range.

A Bargain?

“They really priced it so much more as a bargain,” Eric Krull, the founder of Krull Asset Management and co-author of "The Lifecycle Trade," said on Benzinga’s PreMarket Prep trading show. “They did not go up very much in the last valuation that the venture capitalists got, so that helps I think the most. The big interest helps.”

It may have helped, but not enough to buoy the stock above entry price.

Uber settled Friday's session at $41.57 per share.

The stock closed down 7.6 percent, but that was still better than its rideshare rival. When Lyft Inc LYFT debuted in April, it ended its first session down 12 percent.

Lyft has since slid 30 percent off its IPO price — a fate from which Uber is distancing itself. So far, it seems to have successfully differentiated.

What To Make Of Uber’s Tumble

Uber has distinguished itself from most market newbies. It was the largest funded startup at the time of IPO and had the largest ever pre-IPO revenue ($11.3 billion).

It also claimed the largest ever loss in the year leading up to the IPO ($1.85 billion in adjusted EBITDA) — a stat aligning Uber with an unfavorable trend. Groupon Inc GRPN, Snap Inc SNAP, Moderna Inc MRNA, Vonage Holdings Corp. VG, Viasystems and Lyft had the next biggest losses, and all but one performed poorly.

But even if Uber starts out on their underwhelming path, it isn’t condemned to stay there.

“Most IPOs do not go straight up,” Krull said. “You can look at them and sometimes they have a pop in the first week or two and then they start to correct. But once it hits the Street, you do not get such large gains from the first day’s close.”

Related Links:

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Wedbush Initiates Uber At Outperform, Calls It The 'Amazon Of Transportation'

Photo courtesy of Uber.