Though 2022 was a pretty IPO-less year, 2023 could signal a comeback in the tech IPO market, according to one analyst.
“There are a lot of IPOs on the horizon that you’re going to see,” Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, told Yahoo Finance Live this week (video above). “I think people are waiting for the interest rates to stabilize. If the Fed can get to… [rate hikes of] 0.50% in December and 0.25% in January, I think we might have some hope.”
Some tech companies reportedly eyeing 2023 for an IPO include corporate travel booking startup TripActions, cybersecurity provider Versa Networks, and payments giant Stripe.
This would be a welcome shift after a year where IPOs, once a key feature in tech and the bull market at-large, ground to a near-halt. In 2021, according to EY and Dealogic data, companies listed in the U.S. made $155 billion in proceeds from IPOs. However, in the first half of 2022, that number was just $4.8 billion.
Just like the prospective recovery, the downfall of tech IPOs this year was linked to the Fed, which has been raising rates since March to combat inflation.
“With interest rates so high, the IPO market sucked this year,” Wang said. “It was so bad, right? If you look at tech IPOs, that was in bad shape. If you look at revenues and revenue forecasts, they’re down a little bit. Though they’re still growing for the most part, but half the tech companies reported lower guidance and the other half held guidance.”
Where tech is primed to do well and where it’s slowed down
Cloud is especially feeling the pressure right now, which is jarring since it has long been seen as an area of no-holds-barred growth.
“I just came back from Amazon re:Invent and you can see the tension there,” Wang told Yahoo Finance. “People are trying to figure out how to consolidate cloud spend. They’re trying to figure out how to get the most out of their AI and automation investments… There’s a lot of investment going into analytics, automation, and AI.”
Looking ahead, Wang said he is “still big on cybersecurity stocks,” adding that Crowdstrike (CRWD) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW) are names he’s expecting to look good. He’s also keeping an eye on Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL).
“I think there’s a lot of upside in Amazon in the long run but not right now,” he said. “I’m still bullish on Apple, and I’m still bullish on Google as well.”
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks.
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