Get the Insider Scoop at Newly Public Health-Care Companies

Last year was a good year for at least one thing: initial public offerings in the U.S. With the frenzy of listings of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, IPOs raised a total of $154 billion in 2020. That total was by far the largest of the past 10 years, and more than double the total from 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

- By Denise Cochran and Sheetal Hallur

Here’s a way to poke around among all those newly listed companies. Type “equity screening” on the command line of a terminal screen and click on the “EQS – Equity Screening” match. The shortcut is {EQS }.

First, let’s limit the search to U.S.-domiciled companies. Type “United States” in the Add Criteria field, and click on the “United States – Country of Domicile” match. Next, let’s look at companies that listed last year. Enter “initial public offer” and click on the “Initial Public Offer Date” match. In the drop-down that appears, select <> Between. Then enter 01/01/2020 and 12/31/2020 in the fields that appear and press (FIG. 1). The search identified 274 U.S.-domiciled companies that sold shares last year. That was a 60% jump from 2019, when 166 such companies went public.

To use this search in other functions, save it. Click on the Actions button on the red toolbar and select Save As …. Enter a name such as “2020 IPOs,” and hit Update.