Glossary·Written by a CPA

IPO price

Also called: Offer price

The price a company sells its new shares at in an IPO, set the night before trading starts. It's not the price you'll see when the stock opens.

When a company goes public, the banks running the deal set the IPO price the evening before the first trade, and the people who were given shares in the offering pay exactly that.

Think of it like concert tickets. The IPO price is face value, and the price when the stock opens that first morning is the guy outside the arena charging whatever the crowd will pay.

For you, the gap between those two prices is the whole game, because if a stock pops on day 1, the buyers at the open are paying somebody else's gain.

Example. As an example, if a stock prices its IPO at $75 and opens at $90, someone who got shares in the offering is up 20% before they've done anything, and someone who buys at the open starts from $90.

The catch. Where the IPO price lands against the range in the filing. Pricing above the range usually means demand is hot, and the first day can get silly.

Where I talk about it

Related terms

IPO and S-1 Lock-up expiration Float

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This is education, not tax or investment advice. I'm a CPA, but I'm not your CPA. Full disclaimer.