Uber, Lyft, Slack, Pinterest, Other Hot IPOs & ETFs: What You Need To Know

• (2:30) - How Many IPOs Can Investors Expect In 2019?
• (7:15) - Breaking Down 2019 IPO Valuations: Are They Too High?
• (10:30) - What Is The Impact of a Super Voting Structure?
• (12:45) - What Is The IPO Process and What Is A Direct Listing?
• (16:20) - Renaissance IPO ETF: IPO & IPOS
• (27:40) - Expectations From Chinese IPOs
• (31:20). - Episode Roundup: Podcast@Zacks.com

In a special edition of ETF Spotlight, we take a deeper dive into the tech IPO wave. A number of highly valued tech unicorns are racing to go public this year. In fact, 2019 could be the biggest year ever for IPOs.

In the first part, I am joined by Kathleen Smith, Chairman and co-founder of Renaissance Capital, a global IPO investment advisory firm. We take a look at the IPO market.

In the second part, my guest is Dr. Haran Segram, professor at NYU Stern School of Business. He teaches courses in Investments and Valuation. We dig deeper into valuations.

Per Renaissance, 235 private companies, representing a value of about $700 billion, may tap the market in 2019. These companies could raise over $100 billion this year, the biggest amount ever!

We discuss why so many companies that chose to stay private for years, are rushing to go public now. Are valuations that these companies are seeking justified, considering many of them are still losing money?

Many startups are going public with dual class shares, which give founders extra voting rights. We discuss what that means for investors.We also talk about the IPO process and why some companies prefer a direct listing.

The Renaissance IPO ETF (TO:IPO) provides diversified exposure to newly public companies before they join other core US equity indexes. Major indexes usually include newly public companies only after a “seasoning” period. For example, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) were included in the S&P 500 index about two years after going public.

The ETF has surged more than 30% this year, thanks to strong performance by some of its constituents like Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) , Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) , Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) and MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB) .

The Renaissance International IPO ETF (TO:IPO) holds recently listed international IPOs. Please visit Renaissance Capital to learn more about IPOs and these ETFs. If you have any comments or questions, please email podcast@zacks.com.

Note: Make sure to tune into the second part of this special edition, where my guest is Dr. Haran Segram. We take a deeper dive into numbers and valuations of Lyft, Uber, Pinterest and Slack, and also discuss how investors should think about investing in IPOs.

Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?

Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>