Instacart IPO update: Stock price closely watched today as Nasdaq listing nears

Update Tuesday, 4:45 p.m.

Instacart finished out its first day of trading up 12% over its IPO price, closing at $33.70. The online grocery company’s debut on the Nasdaq has been closely watched by industry observers looking for signals of increased investor appetite after a fallow period for IPOs.

Shares popped earlier in the day, reaching a high of almost $43, but fell shortly after that. Instacart’s expectations had already been significantly reduced from a more ambitious valuation reported in 2021, when the company was basking in pandemic-era growth.

Update Tuesady, 1:50 p.m.

Shares of Instacart rose significantly in their public debut on Tuesday, opening at $42 after being set at $30. By midday, the stock was trading at around $38 a share. If it holds steady, it could send yet another signal to startups and the investor world that the IPO market is rebounding.

The IPO comes less than a week after SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings jumped around 25% in its Nasdaq debut, although shares have come down a bit since then.

Update Tuesday, 6:45 a.m.

Instacart has priced shares at $30, the high end of its projected range, the company said in a press release on Monday. Shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Tuesday. At that price, the grocery delivery company has a valuation of almost $10 billion.

San Francisco-based Instacart, led by CEO Fidji Simo, is the second high-profile tech firm to go public in less than a week, following a successful New York listing from British chip designer Arm Holdings on Thursday. Instacart’s IPO is expected to further test investor interest at a time when more observers are hoping to see a market resurgence. Its valuation, though lower than it had been in the heydey of 2021, could set up shares to pop today when trading begins.

Original story:

After a couple of down years, IPO excitement is back in the air. Last week, Arm Holdings went public in one of the highest-profile offerings of the past few years.

Up next is Maplebear, better known as the grocery delivery service Instacart, which is perhaps the most anticipated IPO of the year for a consumer-facing brand.

On the heels of Arm’s successful IPO—shares jumped around 25% after trading started—Instacart raised its potential listing price in an updated filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. Shares are expected to hit the Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday and will trade under the “CART” ticker.

The filing indicates that shares are expected to be priced between $28 and $30 each, an increase from between $26 and $28, which could mean a total valuation of almost $10 billion. That’s down from a valuation of $39 billion reached during a 2021 fundraising round.

So for investors who have been waiting for Instacart shares to start publicly trading, Tuesday looks to be the big day. And there are a few reasons gleaned from its S-1 to suspect that shares could catch fire on Tuesday. 

For one, Instacart is profitable, having brought in $114 million in net income during the second quarter of 2023 on revenue of $716 million, and profits grew from $73 million in 2021 to $428 million in 2022. The company also has some big backers, headlined by PepsiCo agreeing to purchase $175 million in stock in a private placement. Meanwhile, Instacart has been leaning heavily into AI features in an effort to become more efficient—incorporating an “Ask Instacart” feature, for example, and experimenting with smart shopping carts for another—that may also capture investors’ interest.

In a broader sense, Instacart’s IPO will be another interesting test case for the markets. While the S&P 500 is up more than 16% year-to-date, there’s still pervasive pessimism about the overall strength of the economy. That’s one of the reasons that there have been relatively few high-profile IPOs over the past year or two.

However, given the success this year of IPOs from companies such as Cava Group and, most recently, Arm, an explosive market debut for Instacart could add more credence to the idea that this sentiment is turning around.

Editor’s note: This post and headline have been updated with new information about the stock’s performance.