Forget AI and rockets. The latest high-profile IPO is more about mustard and mayo.
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Shares of sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s Subs Inc. are expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday, July 30, under the ticker symbol “JMKE.” The stock was priced late Wednesday at $23 a share, the midpoint of its marketed range.
It’s the largest initial public offering by a restaurant chain in some time—perhaps the most-hyped since CAVA Group in 2023, or coffee chain Dutch Bros. in 2021.
The IPO also arrives shortly after SpaceX and Bending Spoons went public, and ahead of potential public listings by AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic.
And with IPO fever seemingly sweeping the markets, Jersey Mike’s offers a departure from the tech-focused companies that have been sucking most of the oxygen out of the room.
Aside from being a restaurant chain, Jersey Mike’s also offers a different kind of investment: It’s a 70-year-old, New Jersey-based brick-and-mortar operation with thousands of locations, and hundreds of franchise owners.
It’s also fairly beloved: This year, it was ranked as the top quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain in the country in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
That’s all to say that there is reason for investor interest from both institutional and retail investors.
Private equity firm Blackstone took a majority stake in the company in 2024, and as shares are set to begin trading, the IPO is reportedly more than 10 times oversubscribed, meaning that investor interest has superseded the number of available shares.
If history is any guide, it’s likely that Jersey Mike’s share price will pop after trading begins as retail investors pile in and buy shares.
That could be good news for existing shareholders, like Blackstone, which could see its holdings’ value swell. But for retail investors getting into the action on the first day of trading? There are risks.
Specifically, once the initial wave of enthusiasm starts to wane, share prices often fall, and investors who bought shares at a post-IPO value could end up losing money.
While there’s no guarantee that will happen, it’s a situation that investors in SpaceX currently find themselves in. As of July 29, shares in Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company were trading at around $114—down significantly from their peak of more than $225 in June.
In other words, investors who bought shares above their IPO price of $135 as the price rose after SpaceX went public are staring at significant negative returns.
It’s early days for SpaceX as a publicly traded company, but its post-IPO decline is not an anomaly. As of earlier this month, nearly half of newly listed companies were trading below their IPO price.
While no one can predict what will play out with Jersey Mike’s IPO, the pattern can and should give investors pause. A win for early-stage investors is not necessarily a win for everyone else.
This post originally appeared at fastcompany.com
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