Forget Alibaba! 10 IPOs doubled your money

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(Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY)

Investors are gearing up for the biggest-ever initial public offering of Alibaba. But there’s no reason to wait around to get some massive gains from new stock.
So far this year, there have been 10 initial public offerings, including video-camera maker GoPro (GPRO), restaurant chain El Pollo Loco (LOCO) and online car seller TrueCar (TRUE), that have shot up 100% or more from their offering prices, according to IPOScoop.com.
These stellar performances highlight just how robust the IPO market has been this year. The IPO market reflects sentiment about the broad market, so with the Standard & Poor’s 500 flying to near highs, IPOs are benefiting royally. And if the sentiment remains high, that bodes well for the record-breaking IPO of Alibaba, expected over the next week or so.
And it’s not just a few high-flying IPOs that are busting higher. The Renaissance IPO ETF, which holds shares in recent offerings, is up nearly 8% over the past three months, blowing away the 2.3% gain of the S&P 500 during that same time.

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Source: MSN Money

Much of the strong performance is due to the IPOs that have doubled, many of which coming public over the past three months. These powerful recent gainers are helping the IPO market overcome its earlier stumbles and top the broad market this year. The Renaissance IPO ETF is up 8.7% this year, edging past the 8% gain of the S&P 500.

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Source: MSN Money

The year’s biggest IPO winner so far has been GoPro. The company has jumped 185% from the offering price of $24, closing at $68.47 on Wednesday. Investors have been thrilled by the camera maker’s financial performance since coming public on June 26. Most recently, the company topped June earnings expectations by 14%.
Coming in fourth place is citrus-grilled chicken chain El Pollo Loco. Shares have gone crazy, gaining 142% from their offering price of $15 a share back in late July. The company missed earnings expectations for the June quarter by 6%, but investors were willing to ignore that since revenue beat views by about 1%. The offering was attractively priced at the start, giving investors plenty of upside potential.
But while these IPOs have been runaway winners, that doesn’t mean that they are  screaming buys now. Both GoPro and El Pollo Loco have average analysts rates of “hold.” And on Wall Street, hold means sell. These stocks have run up — turning into magic for investors — but hopefully the gains won’t evaporate as fast as you can say Alibaba.
Below is a table of the 10 IPOs that have started trading this year that have gained 100% or more from their offering prices:
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Company	Symbol	Offer date	Return from IPO price
GoPro	GPRO	6/26/2014	185.3%
Ultragenyx Pharm	RARE	1/31/2014	176.5%
Zendesk	ZEN	5/15/2014	170.4%
El Pollo Loco	LOCO	7/25/2014	141.7%
TrueCar	TRUE	5/16/2014	135.6%
Mobileye	MBLY	8/1/2014	121.9%
ZS Pharma	ZSPH	6/18/2014	119.3%
Arista Networks	ANET	6/6/2014	106.4%
Tuniu	TOUR	5/9/2014	106.2%
Energous	WATT	3/28/2014	100.5%

Source: IPOScoop.com