Merrill Lynch Says These 2019 IPOs Are Red-Hot Buys Now

Fastly

Shares of this edge cloud computing company have been blistered and offer an incredible entry point as well. Fastly Inc. (NYSE: FSLY) is an emerging technology leader in the high-growth content delivery networking (CDN) market. CDN vendors deliver content for enterprises and media/content providers, charging per bandwidth delivered.

Fastly’s network architecture is a combination of best-of-breed hardware and a patented software stack based on open source protocols. This unique stack enables the company to immediately deliver content globally and provide differentiated edge compute services and programmability.

The company just reported solid quarterly results, beating on the top and bottom lines, in addition to confirming forward guidance for next quarter and the year. Given the sideways trading for the past couple of months, shares could be ready to jump higher.

The $26 Merrill Lynch price target is in line with the $26.11 posted consensus target. Fastly stock was last seen trading at $24.59 on Thursday.

Ping

This is another cyber and data security company with a stock that has been shellacked since the IPO. Ping Identity Holding Corp. (NYSE: PING) is a leader in identity access and management. Its IAM products safeguard enterprise applications and data by providing controls around user authentication, access and more.

Ping’s single-sign-on technology helps streamline user workflow by providing a single password for multiple applications to reduce log-ins. Additional product features include consumer identity management, Internet of Things (IoT) and API management. Ping differentiates with a history of complex deployments across hybrid networks.

The Ping Intelligent Identity platform provides customers, employees, partners and, increasingly, IoT, with access to cloud, mobile, SaaS and on-premises applications and APIs, while also managing identity and profile data at scale. Over half of the Fortune 100 choose to use the company for the identity expertise, open standards leadership and partnership with companies including Microsoft and Amazon.

Merrill Lynch has set its price objective at $28.50. The consensus target price is $27.82, but the shares closed at $28.63 apiece, after rising almost 5% on Thursday.

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Uber

This is the highest-profile company in the 2019 IPO club, and it may be the most exciting idea of all. Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) is a mobility platform that services 63 countries, more than 750 ridesharing markets and over 500+ Eats markets, and nearly half of its core platform revenue is generated outside of the United States.

The company’s monthly average paying customers represent 1% to 2% of the world’s population on a monthly basis. For rides, Uber acts as a middleman, connecting riders with drivers. For Eats, the market is three-sided, connecting customers, restaurants and drivers. Uber also has an emerging freight business.

The stock was very disappointing out of the gate last year, and it was almost cut in half before rallying back almost to the original IPO price of $45.

Merrill Lynch has a $49 price target for the shares. The analysts’ consensus target is $48.42, and Uber stock ended trading most recently at $40.92 a share.

Except possibly Bill.com, all these companies still offer aggressive accounts outstanding entry levels, and most have seen their lock-up period come and go. Note that it is often common for newly public companies to price a secondary offering of additional shares six months to a year after the IPO, so traders may want to keep an eye out for those offerings.