MW Wealthfront's stock stumbled out of the gate, in a bit of bad timing for the IPO

By Tomi Kilgore

The financial-services provider for 'digital natives' saw its stock eventually trade higher, after dipping below its IPO price several times

Wealthfront's stock got off to a slow start, as it debuted amid a quiet IPO market on a day the broader stock market sold off.

Wealthfront picked a tough day to kick off its life on Wall Street.

Early indications showed strong investor demand for Wealthfront's (WLTH) initial public offering. The provider of "robo-adviser" services, or automated investment portfolios, which bills itself as a wealth-accumulation platform for digital natives said late Thursday that its IPO of 34.62 million shares had priced at $14 a share, which was at the top of the expected range of between $12 and $14 a share.

The very first indication of where the stock could open, about three hours before it actually opened, was at $15.50, or 10.7% above the IPO price.

But as the broader stock market sold off Friday, with the S&P 500 index SPX down as much as 1.4% at its intraday low, so did the indications of that opening price. And when the stock finally did start trading on the Nasdaq COMP at 1:14 p.m. Eastern time, it was right at its IPO price of $14.

The stock seesawed around the flatline for the first half-hour after its debut, trading as low as $13.75 and as high as $14.24, before moving higher as the day wore on and the broader market recovered some of its losses.

The stock was 3.9% above its IPO price in recent afternoon trading.

The company's debut also comes during a "quiet" quarter for IPOs, given uncertainties surrounding the government shutdown in October and the sharp selloff in technology stocks for much of November, according to Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital.

The Renaissance IPO ETF IPO, which fell 3% in recent afternoon trading, has lost 9.8% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index has gained 3.7%.

There was good reason for investor optimism for the IPO. The lead underwriters were Wall Street heavyweights Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. And the California-based company was expected to report revenue for the quarter through Oct. 31 that rose to $91 million to $95 million, from $80.31 million a year ago, and net income that slipped to $29 million to $30 million, from $30.05 million.

The company has also been around a long time, as it was founded in January 2008 as Kaching Group, before changing its name to Wealthfront Inc. in October 2010, and then finally to its current name of Wealthfront Corp. in August 2018.

The company raised $484.6 million with the IPO - $300.55 million for itself and $184.06 million for selling shareholders.

At the IPO price, Wealthfront had a market capitalization of $2.05 billion, which makes it the largest company to debut in U.S. markets since shares of Mexico-based air-transportation company Grupo Aeromexico S.A.B. de CV (AERO) started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 5 at a valuation of $2.7 billion, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The company's target customers are "digital natives," which it defines as people born after 1980 - millennials, Gen Z-ers and later generations - who are comfortable dealing with digital-only services.

Its clients are primarily "high earners" who prioritize savings and wealth accumulation. As of July 31, Wealthfront had 1.3 million funded clients and $88.2 billion in platform assets.

-Tomi Kilgore

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December 12, 2025 14:47 ET (19:47 GMT)

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