Nutanix Stokes IPO Fire; Tech Unicorn Doubles In Debut

Tech unicorn Nutanix (NTNX) has more than doubled in its Friday trading debut after its initial public offering raised $238 million, surpassing expectations of $196 million.

Nutanix priced an upsized 14.9 million shares at 16, above its recently raised range of 13 to 15. It opened at 26.50, up 66%, joining several recent IPOs that have opened with double-digit gains and giving a badly needed shot of oxygen to the market for new issues after a slow start to the year.

Nutanix finished its first session at 37, up 131.3%. Nutanix rose as high as 39.40 intraday.

Nutanix became the second unicorn to IPO this year this year after Twilio (TWLO). Unicorn is a term used for private companies with a market valuation about $1 billion.

The biggest unicorns, such as Uber and Snapchat, get the most buzz, but Nutanix also has received a fair amount of attention. The company pioneered a field called hyperconvergence infrastructure, a market that research firm IDC estimates could reach $5 billion in 2019, up from $2 billion this year.

The IPO market, after a slow first half of the year, began to gain speed with the May 13 IPO of Acacia Communications (ACIA), which popped 35% on its first trading day. Acacia, a provider of high-speed fiber-optic communications gear, priced at 23. The stock was up fractionally to 103.28 in afternoon trading in the stock market today. Acacia may soon have its first-ever test of its 50-day moving average, which is rising rapidly.

Acacia was followed by cloud software provider Twilio on June 23, which jumped 92% on the first day of trading. It priced at 15 and finished the day down 6.3% to 64.36.

Japan-based messaging service Line (LN), up 50% from its IPO price of 32.75, has been another solid IPO. Line shares closed at 48.40, down 1.3%.

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Nutanix said it has 3,768 customers as of July 31, up from 782 customers two years ago. The San Jose, Calif.-based company has been growing fast but also shows large losses as it invests big sums on sales and marketing and research and development.

For the 12-month period ended July 31, Nutanix reported revenue of $445 million, up 84% from the year-earlier period, and a net loss of $168.5 million.

For the quarter ended July 31, Nutanix reported revenue of $139.8 million, up 89%, and a net loss of $50 million.

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