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IPO Roundup: Casper Sleep recovers on day one after investors hit snooze on its IPO; PPD brings in $1.6B

Published: 12:34 06 Feb 2020 EST

Casper mattresses

Casper Sleep Inc (NYSE:CSPR) got off to a positive start in its public debut Thursday, even after pricing at the low end of its already-revised-down IPO range. 

The direct-to-consumer mattress company raised $100 million, offering 8.4 million shares at $12 per share, the short end of its $12-$13 range. The company had originally expected to price within a $17-19 range. 

Casper currently distributes to consumers in seven countries through its online platform, 60 retail stores and 18 retail partners. The New York company has produced an award-winning mattress and claims to have 1.4 million satisfied customers.

Casper opened at $14.50 and jumped to $15.25, 27% above its IPO price.

PPD Inc (NASDAQ:PPD), a contract research organization for pharmaceutical companies, raised a whopping $1.6 billion in a triumphant return to public markets. 

The Wilmington, North Carolina company offered 60 million shares at $27 per share, the high end of its projected range.

The firm was previously publicly traded until 2011 when it was taken private by Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman in a $3.9 billion cash deal, according to Reuters.

PPD has provided drug development and other services for more than three decades to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and government organizations, as well as other industry participants. The company claims to have served every one of the top 50 biopharmaceutical companies in the world in 2018.

Shares opened at $31 and dropped slightly to $30, 11% above the IPO price.

Beam Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BEAM), a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company developing gene editing-based therapies, raised $180 million in an upsized IPO.

The company offered 10.6 million shares, 4.3 million more than originally planned, at $17 per share, the high end of its expected range. 

Beam’s goal is to create a new class of precision genetic medicines based on its proprietary base editing technology. The most common type of genetic mutation is a single DNA base error, which represents roughly 58% of genetic errors associated with disease, the company said. Editing at the single-base level could provide life-long cures to patients suffering from serious diseases.

Beam shares debuted higher at $24 before sliding to $21.30, 25% above its IPO price. 

Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com 

Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel

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