IPO Spotlight

Article Excerpt

BLUE APRON HOLDINGS INC. $2.15 (New York symbol APRN; Consumer Sector; Shares o/s: 245.4 million; Market cap: $527.6 million; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; No dividend paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blueapron.com) sells meal kits over the Internet. On a weekly basis, its subscribers select their favourite recipes from a variety of original dishes. The company then prepares a box of the fresh ingredients needed to make those dinners. That shipment gets dropped off at the subscriber’s home, along with easy step-by-step instructions. Blue Apron first sold shares to the public in June 2016 at $10.00 each. The stock is down sharply since its IPO mainly due to rising competition: Both Walmart and Weight Watchers plan to launch their own meal kit businesses. Amazon.com may also enter this segment given its recent acquisition of Whole Foods. In response, Blue Apron has cut its subscription prices. To conserve cash, it is also cutting jobs and its ad spending. However, that could make it difficult for the company…