About 14 months ago fast casual restaurant chain Noodles and Company (NDLS) had one of the most successful initial public offerings of the year, more than doubling on its first day of trading from an offer price of $18 per share. That very day I warned how overvalued the stock was at its then-$36 price. Investors trampled over each other to buy the shares for a few more days (the stock peaked at $51.97 on its third day of trading) and then reality slowly began to set in. Paying more than 40 times cash flow for NDLS, or any stock for that matter, is a very dangerous proposition.
After several quarters in the public spotlight, many recent high-flying IPOs have crashed and burned. Most are in the retail space, such as The Container Store (TCS) or Zulily (ZU). Amazingly, even after huge drops, most of these stocks are not yet bargains. Circling back to Noodles & Company, which is trading below $20 per share today after reporting lackluster earnings last night, the stock still trades at about 15 times cash flow (enterprise value of more than $600 million for a company that booked EBITDA of about $20 million during the first half of 2014). That price is still on the high side of fair, even if you believe in the growth story and think NDLS will succeed in continuing to grow its unit base by double digits annually for many years to come. I'm not a huge fan of the company to begin with, so a 15 multiple is not even in the ballpark for me to consider it as an investment, despite the fact that I have favored growth stories in the restaurant area for a very long time.
For bargain hunters, it certainly makes sense to watch these recent IPOs as they crater back to earth. However, be careful not to jump at something just because it is down 50% or more from its peak. NDLS is a perfect example of a stock that is down a ton (62% in the past year) but is still not cheap. You really need the valuation to be favorable to justify bottom fishing in recent IPOs. Some of them went so far above a reasonable price right out of the gate that a price drop alone puts them in the "less expensive" category, as opposed to "undervalued."
Full Disclosure: No positions in NDLS, TCS, or ZU at the time of writing, but positions may change at any time