FIN 5130 Mini-case 2 Real World Application: IPOs Dr. Palkar

Jamez

10 Feb 2026 • 6 min read

This assignment will require you to obtain relevant information regarding IPOs. Important Notes before starting the Mini-case:

1. You need to select an IPO company that has not already been selected by your classmates. Also, do not select the company – Oportun Financial Corp because we are using this company as an example in class notes.

2. Do not pick an IPO prior to 1996. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started requiring companies to upload filings online starting 1996. So, you will not be able to find data for your selected IPO if you pick an IPO with an offer date prior to 1996.

3. If you have a company in mind that you want to track for the Mini-case but don't know the exact IPO date, then just google on "Company IPO date". For example, "Uber IPO Date" or "when did Uber go public". Once you get the date then go to Nasdaq IPO calendar and complete the details required for the Mini-case. Again, remember, if your company went IPO prior to 1996, you will not find the data so you will need to pick a different company.

4. If you are unsure about which IPO you want to select, you can search for the top IPOs of a particular year or use one of the companies listed on the Nasdaq IPO Calendar . This website includes past and upcoming IPOs. Do not select upcoming IPOs as they are not yet completed so you will not have all the data.

5. You can upload with a Word document or Excel document – either is fine. To receive points, remember to show your formula, calculations, and snapshots wherever requested under that question – do not just type your final answer.

Questions:

5 points	1. What is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)? How does it differ from a Seasoned Equity offering (SEO)? Also state the slide number from the handout notes in your explanation.
5 points	2. Say, you are interested in an IPO. How can you invest in an IPO? You will find the answer to this question here: https://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/ipo -investorbulletin.pdf
5 points	3. Explain in your own words the advantages and disadvantages of going public. Also state the slide number from the handout notes in your explanation.
5 points	4. Select a company that has issued an IPO from Nasdaq IPO Calendar . Enter the name of your IPO company, the ticker symbol, the offer date, the offer price, shares offered, and the screenshot under “Mini-case 2” Forum. Enter this information in your Mini-case 2 document as well. Look at my example under Mini-case 2 Forum and submit similar information and screenshot for your selected IPO company.
5 points	5. Provide a brief description of the company in a couple of lines in your own words. Provide a reference of where you obtained this information from.
15 points	6. What are the direct costs of an IPO to the company? Obtain your answer both in dollars and percentages. After the company completes its IPO, it will submit all IPO completion details to SEC generally via Form 424B4. To quickly access Form 424B4 related to this IPO, you can click on your selected IPO company’s name under IPO Calendar in Nasdaq.com website and then click on “Financials & Filings” and scroll down to get the direct link to Form 424B4. a. Direct Costs in dollars = Underwriting discounts and commissions per share (no need to calculate – this is stated in Form 424B4). b. Direct Costs in percentages = Underwriting discounts and commissions per share/Offer price. Upload a scanned image showing the underwriter commissions and offering price to public from Form 424B4. Show your calculation for 6(b).
5 points	7. Who are the underwriters for your company’s IPO and how many shares did each underwriter agree to see in the offering? Upload a scanned image showing the underwriters and number of shares they agreed to sell from Form 424B4.
10 points	8. Go to Yahoo! Finance website: Enter the company’s ticker and then go to Historical Data. What is the Closing Price on the company’s very first day of its trading? a) Under Historical Data, select “Max” under time. This will display the data for all trading dates. Scroll down to the very first trading date. Now, the closing prices provided by Yahoo! Finance are adjusted for stock splits over the life of that stock. We need the first day’s closing price that is not adjusted for stock splits. To get that information, follow steps b) to d): b) Obtain all stock splits that occurred after the company went public as follows: • Select the entire period (i.e., select “Max”). • Under Historical Prices dropdown menu, select “Stock Splits”.
	• Pick any Frequency; it does not matter. c) Calculate the cumulative stock split factor. • For multiple splits, multiply the individual split factors. • For example, for a 2-for-1 followed by a 3-for-1 split, the cumulative factor = 2 × 3 = 6. d) Multiply the adjusted price (i.e., the adjusted first day closing price you obtained in Part 8.a) by the cumulative stock split factor to get the unadjusted price. This is your answer for the first day closing price that is unadjusted for stock splits. Paste a snapshot of the closing price on the first day of trading from Yahoo! Finance Historical Data (what you obtained under 8.a). Paste a snapshot of the stock splits from Yahoo! Finance Historical Data (what you obtained under 8.b). Show your calculation for 8.c) and 8.d).
10 points	9. What are the indirect costs of an IPO to the company in percentages? Underpricing% = Hints: a. You should have obtained the Offer Price and number of shares offered in the IPO in Question #4. b. Use the unadjusted first trading day closing price in your calculation. You should have obtained the unadjusted Closing price on the first day of trading in Question 8.d). Show your calculation.
10 points	10. What are the indirect costs of an IPO to the company in dollars? Money left on the table = Indirect costs of an IPO = (Closing price on the first day of trading – Offer Price) * number of shares offered in the IPO Hints: a. You should have obtained the Offer Price and number of shares offered in the IPO in Question #4.
	b. Use the unadjusted first trading day closing price in your calculation. You should have obtained the unadjusted Closing price on the first day of trading in Question 8.d). Show your calculation. While, on average, the IPOS are underpriced (that is, the first day’s closing price is higher than the offering price), not all IPO companies will exhibit these findings. You will find some IPO companies where the first day closing price will not be higher than the offer price. That’s fine. You can use the same above formula and leave your answer as a negative number. Interesting fact: From 1980-2024, $237.03 billion were “left on the table” by 9,253 IPOs in the U.S. (IPOs -Underpricing ).
5 points	11. What is today’s (i.e., most recent or newest) closing price you observe for this company? Go to Yahoo! Finance website and select the most recent Adj. Closing price. Paste a snapshot of the most recent Adj. closing price from Yahoo! Finance Historical Data.
20 points	12. Suppose you purchased 500 shares at closing price on first day of trading and sold it today, a. What is the dollar return on your investment? b. What is the percentage return on your investment? Use the Adj. Closing Price on the first day of trading. You should already that number in your screenshot for Question 8.a). Use the most recent Adj. Closing Price. You should have found this in Question #11. Note that since we are using the Adj. Closing Price from Yahoo! Finance website, we do not need to adjust for stock splits and dividends. Adj. Closing Price provided by Yahoo! Finance is already adjusted for stock splits and dividends. Show your calculation.

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