Don’t let limelight blind you to IPO risk

Article Excerpt

IPOs generally come to market when it’s a good time for insiders to sell. That often isn’t a good time for you to buy. In addition, as part of our three-part approach to investing, we downplay stocks in the broker/media limelight, such as the three new issues we analyze below. (Note, the other two parts of our approach are to hold mostly high-quality, dividend-paying stocks and to spread your money out across the five main economic sectors.) It’s also better for investors to wait to see how a new listing copes with a recession and other risks like COVID-19, for example. PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES INC. $21 is a hold. The company (New York symbol PLTR; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $39.9 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Lowest; www.palntir.com) is a developer of data-mining software platforms for both government and private industry. It was founded in 2003 to build software for the U.S. intelligence community. The…