Personal blog of Yzmir Ramirez

Today Jamf, a software company that helps other firms manage their Apple devices, raised its IPO price range.

The company had previously targeted a $17 to $19 per-share range. A new SEC filing from the firm today details a far higher $21 to $23 per-share IPO price interval.

Jamf still intends to sell up to 18.4 million shares in its debut, including 13.5 million in primary stock, 2.5 million shares from existing shareholders and an underwriter option worth 2.4 million shares. The whole whack at $21 to $23 per share would tally between $386.4 million and $423.2 million, though not all those funds would flow to the company.

At the low and high-end of its new IPO range, Jamf is worth between $2.44 billion and $2.68 billion, steep upgrades from its prior valuation range of $1.98 billion to $2.21 billion.

Jamf follows in the footsteps of recent IPOs like nCino, Vroom and others in seeing demand for its public offering allow its pricing to track higher the closer it gets to its public offering. Such demand from public-market investors indicates there is ample demand for debut shares in mid-2020, a fact that could spur other companies to the exit market.

Coinbase, Airbnb and DoorDash are three such companies that are expected to debut in the next year’s time, give or take a quarter or two.

Results, multiples

In anticipation of the Jamf debut that should come this week, let’s chat about the company’s recent performance.

Observe the following table from the most-recent Jamf S-1/A:

From even a quick glance we can learn much from this data. We can see that Jamf is growing, has improving gross margins and has managed to swing from an operating loss to operating profit in Q2 2020, compared to Q2 2019. And, for you fans out there of adjusted metrics, that Jamf managed to generate more non-GAAP operating income in its most recent period than the year-ago quarter.

In more precise terms:

• Jamf grew from 26.5% to 29.0% on a year-over-year basis in Q2 2020
• Its gross margin grew by 6% in gross terms, and 8.3% in relative terms
• Its non-GAAP operating income grew 123.4%, to 150.9% in Q2 2020 compared to the year-ago quarter

Profits! Growth! Software! Improving margins! It’s not a huge surprise that Jamf managed to bolster its IPO price range.

Finally, for the SaaS-heads out there, the following:

This data lets us have a little fun. Recall that we have seen possible valuations for Jamf at IPO that started at $1.98 billion to $2.21 billion, and now include $2.44 billion and $2.68 billion? With our two ARR ranges for the end of Q2, we can now come up with eight ARR multiples for Jamf, from the low-end of its initial IPO price estimate, to the top-end of its new range.

Here they are:

• Multiple at $1.98 billion valuation and $238 million ARR: 8.3x
• Multiple at $1.98 billion valuation and $241 million ARR: 8.2x
• Multiple at $2.21 billion valuation and $238 million ARR: 9.3x
• Multiple at $2.21 billion valuation and $241 million ARR: 9.2x
• Multiple at $2.44 billion valuation and $238 million ARR: 10.3x
• Multiple at $2.44 billion valuation and $241 million ARR: 10.1x
• Multiple at $2.68 billion valuation and $238 million ARR: 11.3x
• Multiple at $2.68 billion valuation and $241 million ARR: 11.2x

From that perspective, the pricing changes feel a bit more modest, even if they work out to a huge spread on a valuation basis.

Regardless, this is the current state of the Jamf IPO. Rackspace also filed a new S-1/A today, but we can’t find anything useful in it. A bit like the Jamf S-1/A from Friday. Perhaps we’ll get a new Rackspace document soon with pricing notes.

And, of course, like the rest of the world we await the Palantir S-1 with bated breath. Consider that our white whale.

Palantir, the sometimes controversial, but always secretive, big data and analytics provider that works with governments and other public and private organizations to power national security, health and a variety of other services, has reportedly been eyeing a public listing this autumn. But in the meantime it’s also continuing to push ahead in the private markets.

The company has filed a Form D — its first in four years — indicating that it is in the process of raising nearly $1 billion — $961,099,010, to be exact — with $549,727,437 of that already sold, and a further $411,371,573 remaining to be raised.

(A Reuters report from June confirmed that Palantir had closed funding from two strategic investors that both work with the company: $500 million from Japanese insurance company Sompo Holdings, and $50 million from Fujitsu. Together, it seems like these might account for $550 million noted as already sold on the Form D.)

The Form D also notes that 58 investors are already attached to the offering, and that “of the total remaining to be sold, all but $671,576.25 represents shares of common stock already subscribed for.” This means that Palantir has already secured commitments for the remaining part of the $961 million raise, although the offering has not closed.

Palantir declined to comment on the filing, except to note that this is related to primary investments, not secondary stakes.

It’s not clear if this latest fundraise, as spelled out by the Form D, spells a delay to a public listing, or if the intention is to complement it. 

The filing also appears to confirm a report from September 2019 that Palantir was seeking to raise between $1 billion and $3 billion, its first fundraising in four years.

That report noted Palantir was targeting a $26 billion valuation, up from $20 billion four years ago. The Reuters article in June put its valuation based on secondary market trades at between $10 billion and $14 billion.

To date, Palantir has raised at least $3.3 billion in funding, according to PitchBook, which names no fewer than 108 investors on its cap table.

The PitchBook data (some of which is behind a paywall) also indicates that Palantir has raised a number of previous rounds of undisclosed amounts.

Palantir was last valued at $20 billion when it raised money four years ago, but there are some data points that point to a bigger valuation today.

While the coronavirus pandemic has all but halted the IPO market, we are starting to see some movement again, and Palantir’s own business activity points to what might be a strong candidate to usher in more activity.

In April, according to a Bloomberg report, the company briefed investors with documents showing that it expects to make $1 billion in revenues this year, up 38% on 2019, and breaking even in the first time since being founded 16 years ago by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and current CEO Alex Karp.

(The Bloomberg report didn’t explain why Palantir was briefing investors, whether for a potential public listing, or for the fundraise we’re reporting on here, or something else.)

On top of that, the company has been in the news a lot around the global novel coronavirus pandemic.

Specifically, it’s been winning business, in the form of projects in major markets like the U.K. (where it’s part of a consortium of companies working with the NHS on a COVID-19 data trove) and the U.S. (where it’s been working on a COVID-19 tracker for the federal government and a project with the CDC), and possibly others. Those projects will presumably need a lot of upfront capital to set up and run, alongside other business deals that Palantir has been securing — possibly one reason it is raising money now.

Updated throughout, including with response from Palantir.

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