NEW YORK, Nov 2: Twitter will be the talk of Wall Street next week when the social media company goes public in the stock market’s most anticipated initial public offering since 2012’s Facebook.

Twitter is expected to price its IPO on the evening of Nov 6 and begin trading Nov 7 on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol.

“It’s not just about the stock. Twitter’s IPO will be a measure of how much liquidity is out there,” said John Rutledge, chief investment strategist at SAFANAD, a private investment firm in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Twitter has said it will sell 70 million shares at a price between $17 and $20, valuing the online messaging company as much as $11 billion, below the $15bn that some analysts had been expecting.

The market will be on alert to see if Twitter follows the fate of last year’s botched Facebook Inc IPO: the social networking company’s stock hit the market in May 2012 and was plagued by allocation problems, trading glitches and a selloff.The shares did not recover the IPO price until a year later. Views have been mixed on what investing strategy to take for Twitter’s IPO. According to a Reuters survey of 29 broker-dealers and independent advisers, 23 said they are not recommending Twitter shares.

Only one said he would recommend it — and only to certain clients. Five others said they would wait to snap up the stock if it plunges after it begins to trade. But while retail interest might be low, tech industry analysts say there is expected to be a good appetite for Twitter’s stock from institutional investors at the current valuation.

On Friday, Morningstar joined three other brokerages in setting price targets for Twitter Inc well above its IPO price range, suggesting the stock has room to rise at least 30 percent.

The Wall Street brokerages set a price target of $26 a share. Last month, Pivotal Research had set its price target at $29 a share, SunTrust at $50 and Topeka Capital at $54.—Reuters

Opinion

Editorial

Privatisation divide
14 May, 2024

Privatisation divide

WITH Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar having clawed his way back to the centre of economic policymaking, a tussle...
AJK protests
14 May, 2024

AJK protests

SINCE last week, Azad Jammu & Kashmir has been roiled by protests, fuelled principally by a disconnect between...
Guns and guards
14 May, 2024

Guns and guards

THERE are some flawed aspects to our society that we must start to fix at the grassroots level. One of these is the...
Spending restrictions
Updated 13 May, 2024

Spending restrictions

The country's "recovery" in recent months remains fragile and any shock at this point can mean a relapse.
Climate authority
13 May, 2024

Climate authority

WITH the authorities dragging their feet for seven years on the establishment of a Climate Change Authority and...
Vending organs
13 May, 2024

Vending organs

IN these cash-strapped times, black marketers in the organ trade are returning to rake it in by harvesting the ...