Shares of online brokerage Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) fell 8.4% in its market debut as retail investors snubbed the stock.
The online trading platform has focused on providing investing services to millennials and other young retail traders. However, those investors stayed away from Robinhood’s initial public offering and the company’s stock fell in its debut after raising $2.1 billion U.S. and pricing at the bottom end of expectations.
Robinhood ended up selling 55 million shares for $38 U.S. each after marketing the stock for $38 U.S. to $42 U.S.
Robinhood shares, which opened at $38 U.S. finished trading at $34.82 U.S. on Thursday (July 29), giving the company a market value of $29 billion U.S., less than the $36 billion U.S. valuation it would have had if the shares had priced at the top end of its expected range.
Robinhood, whose trading app was made famous during this year’s meme stock frenzy, had allocated an unusually large portion of its IPO shares to retail investors. It ended up selling around 20% to 25% of the deal to individual investors after setting aside as much as 35% of the offering for them.
By some measures, Robinhood’s IPO was the worst performing market debut in the U.S. since 2007.
Related Stories
