2011 in Review – An IPO (Trick) Question

Think of one of those matching questions common on tests when you were younger. In this case, it would go something like this.

Below is a list of tech company’s who IPO’d in 2011. Can you plug in the appropriate stock performance?

Company 2011 Stock Performance
Angie’s List ???
Bankrate ???
Groupon ???
LinkedIn ???
Zillow ???
Zynga ???

The choices are:
-0.98%
-37.15%
+40.16%
-0.95%
-20.99%
-33.15%

What is your guess? Notice. Two stocks were relatively flat. Three lost more than 20%, with the average being closer to 30%. Only one was positive and by a lot.

Is your guess something like this?

Company 2011 Stock Performance
Angie’s List -20.99%
Bankrate -0.95%
Groupon -33.15%
LinkedIn +40.16%
Zillow -37.15%
Zynga -0.98%

What if we said the actual answer looked like this?

Company 2011 Stock Performance
Angie’s List -37.15%
Bankrate 40.16%
Groupon -20.99%
LinkedIn -33.15%
Zillow -0.98%
Zynga -0.95%

That’s right. Of all the tech IPO’s including some of the most anticipated and hyped companies, only one had a win, and only one looked like this:

Bankrate (RATE).