Cushman & Wakefield Shares Climb Amid Rave Analyst Reviews A Month After IPO
Less than a month after Cushman & Wakefield undertook its initial public offering, the company is getting generally good reviews from analysts, though its share prices thus far are still only somewhat higher than their starting price.
For instance, Morgan Stanley analyst Vikram Malhotra initiated coverage of Cushman & Wakefield this week, with an overweight rating and $21 price target, while JMP Securities analyst Mitch Germain started coverage with a market outperformance rating and a slightly less optimistic price target of $20.50.
Malhotra said in a note, as reported by Benzinga, that Cushman & Wakefield is well positioned to compete against its global rivals, and it will do well despite signs of a late real estate cycle in the U.S.
Cushman & Wakefield has the liquidity to pursue M&A, recruit well-regarded producers and attempt tech initiatives, Germain said, also as reported by Benzinga.
“Less than half of the addressable market is currently outsourced to real estate providers such as Cushman,” analysts led by Credit Suisse's Douglas Harter wrote in a note, as reported by MarketWatch. Credit Suisse started coverage with an outperform rating and $21 stock price target.
The company now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CWK. On its first day of trading on Aug. 2, CWK gained about 5% from a debut price of $17/share.
In its IPO, the company sold 45 million shares for $765M, making it one of the larger IPOs thus far in 2018, according to Commercial Observer. The IPO also valued the company at around $3.1B, not including debt.
Since then share prices have floated along.
CWK shares ended Aug. 2 at $17.81 and reached a high of $18.55 the next day. Two weeks later on Aug. 16, prices had slid to $17.47/share and closed on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at $17.82/share, or 4.8% over its IPO price — most of which was realized in the first day.
