Investors Warm to Pivotal Software on Day 2 of IPO

On Friday, Pivotal Software (NYSE: PVTL) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $15 a share, raising $555 million in its first day,

Subscription News: Investors Warm to Pivotal Software on Day 2 of IPO

Source: Pivotal

On Friday, Pivotal Software (NYSE: PVTL) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $15 a share, raising $555 million in its first day, reports MarketWatch. At the end of Day 1, Pivotal stock was valued at $15.73 per share. Despite the lackluster reception on Friday, investors warmed to Pivotal on Day 2, closing at $17.26 per share as of 7:22 p.m. EDT yesterday. Other tech companies who have filed IPOs this spring are Dropbox, Spotify and Zuora.

Subscription News: Investors Warm to Pivotal Software on Day 2 of IPO

Source: Google

Though the company filed with the SEC on March 23, Pivotal officially announced its IPO to the public on April 9, stating they would issue 37 million shares of Class A common stock, 33.117 million shares from its own common stock and 3.883 million shares from investor General Electric. The company initially anticipated getting a price between $14 and $16 per share, but on April 19 announced they would start at $15 per share. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup served as the IPO’s lead book-running managers.

Pivotal, a cloud-native platform for software development and IT solutions, describes its business this way:

‘We provide a leading cloud-native platform that makes software development and IT operations a strategic advantage for our customers. PCF customers can accelerate their adoption of modern software development practices through Labs, our complementary strategic services. Our customers realize measurable improvement in developer productivity, software quality, security, time-to-market and IT operational efficiency.

Our offering helps make developing and operating software a strategic advantage for our customers, empowering them to revolutionize their customer experiences, helping create new revenue streams and improving the speed and cost of business operations through software,’ the company said in its S-1 filing.

The company’s primary product is called Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF), a subscription-based software application used by developers and IT departments to build, deploy and operate cloud-based applications. Pivotal customers include Citi, DISH, Bloomberg, Comcast, Home Depot, IRS, Ford, Liberty Mutual, Mercedes Benz, Allstate, General Electric and Humana.

‘Cloud Foundry sits at the core of our platform as a service. The platform provides all the pieces the developers need in order to create operable software with low friction,’ said Matt Curry, director of cloud engineering at Allstate.

Subscription News: Investors Warm to Pivotal Software on Day 2 of IPO

Source: Pivotal

The company offered the following business highlights in its SEC filing:

  • In four years, the company has grown to 319 subscription customers.
  • Pivotal generates $259 million in subscription revenue annually.
  • Subscription revenue growth was 73 percent year-over-year.
  • Total addressable market is more than $50 billion.

Financial highlights as of February 2, 2018, the company’s fiscal year end, include the following:

  • Total revenue of $509.4 million, of which $259.0 million is subscription and $250.4 million is service revenue.
  • Gross profit is $281.0 million.
  • Net loss for the fiscal year end was $163.5 million, or $1.19 per share.

According to TechCrunch, Pivotal wanted to raise additional capital through the IPO for new investment in the company.

‘I think we can definitely use the capital to invest in marketing and R&D. The wider technology ecosystem is moving quickly. It does take additional investment to keep up,’ CEO Rob Mee told TechCrunch the day of the IPO.

Insider Take:

With a lucrative stable of customers and significant year-over-year subscription and revenue growth, Pivotal Software has positioned itself to scale its business to take advantage of future growth opportunities. Though the company has competed indirectly for investment dollars against other tech IPOs, investors who believe that cloud-native platforms are the future won’t let that stop them from investing in a company they believe in. Perhaps Pivotal will be that company.

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