Pizza Store Papa Murphy’s IPO Fresh From the Oven

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 28, 3:39AM EDT · Published May 2, 11:30AM EDT

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Pizza

Pizza store operator and franchisor Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) launched its initial public offering (IPO) Friday morning, selling 5.8 million shares at $11 a share, the low end of its expected price range. Lead managers on the IPO were Jefferies & Co., Baird and Wells Fargo Securities.

Unlike most pizza parlors, Papa Murphy’s sells “take and bake” pizzas, which are assembled at the store and then taken home by customers to be cooked. A Papa Murphy’s store has no ovens. The company plans to build on that distinction by emphasizing the freshness of its ingredients. Thus the choice of Papa Murphy’s ticker symbol.

The company had 1,418 stores at the end of December, with 95% of the stores operating as franchises. It believes that over time it can open a total of 4,500 stores. The competition is stiff though, with some 70,000 pizza restaurants already operating in the United States.

Another headwind is a recent lawsuit from a group of franchisees who claim the company’s franchising documents are not entirely true.

Investors seem to like the good parts of the story, though. The shares opened at $12.10 Friday morning and in late morning traded at $12.02, up more than 6%.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.