The Fresh Market Insiders Selling After Great IPO (TFM)

The Fresh Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: TFM) has enjoyed a solid performance since its IPO in late 2010.  Those shares were recently up 100% from the pricing and the stock has never come close to getting back to its IPO pricing.  Now insiders have filed to sell 11.5 million shares at what should be close to $470 million in gross proceeds.

The selling stockholders and insiders will receive all of the net proceeds from the sale of the shares and the company will receive none of the proceeds from this offering.

Underwriters are J.P. Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch as joint book-runners; and co managers are Morgan Stanley, William Blair & Company, and RBC Capital Markets.
 
As of March 18, 2011, The Fresh Market operated 101 stores in 20 states, primarily in the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic United States.

As noted in the title, shares have been on a tear.  When it sold shares in its IPO just in November, the price was at $22.00 for 13.2 million shares and the indicated price range had been $18 to $20 per share.  Shares closed Tuesday at $40.48 and its post-IPO range is $30.97 to $46.85.

This will not quite double the float, but it is close.  The short interest has been climbing and the shares in the short interest as of February 28 settlement date reached a high of 1,080,968 shares.

JON C. OGG