loading
loading
Biometric ring maker Oura raised eyebrows on Wall Street Tuesday, postponing its initial public offering due to "uncertainty" in market conditions while also claiming there was "strong demand" for stock. IPO delays have accelerated in 2026, even as Oura faced some company-specific pushback from the Street. Market conditions for new offerings are suddenly becoming a headwind for companies thinking about going public now, largely because of surging bonds yields, analysts say. "The fact that we've had three or four in a row – a string of postponements – I think that does tell you something about the market," Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at IPO specialist Renaissance Capital, told CNBC. "You can't really point to all four of them and say it's company-specific issues." Four companies in different sectors, all aiming to raise at least $50 million, announced postponements or pulled their IPOs altogether in the past week, according to Renaissance Capital data. That makes seven in the third quarter, up from four in the second quarter and three in the first. Before Oura's postponement on Tuesday, nuclear power component maker Holtec Nuclear withdrew its IPO last Friday; materials company Amaero postponed its IPO last Wednesday; and Bamboo Insurance postponed its IPO on Sept. 22. "I've got a little bit of sympathy for market conditions as a rationale," said Jay Ritter, director of the IPO Initiative at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business. "The fact that three prominent companies are doing this does indicate that it's not company-specific." Solid IPO year It's been a solid year for IPOs, with about $146.9 billion in proceeds coming in 110 deals, excluding special purpose acquisition companies, Renaissance Capital data shows. Those figures include mega offerings from SpaceX and South Korean memory maker SK Hynix in the second quarter. Still, that's down 30% from this time last year. In all of 2025 there were 202 IPOs, the most since 2021 when there were close to 400. Total proceeds are up 394% this year, largely due to the SpaceX, SK Hynix and Cerebras offerings. Health care and industrials are tied for the top sector to launch IPOs year-to-date — both accounting for 24% of the total. Technology is third, at 18% of the total. So far this year, 59% of all of the 2026 offerings are selling at or above the IPO price although, notably, SpaceX, SK Hynix and Cerebras are all lagging. Macroeconomic headwinds Lately, macroeconomic factors and concern about the artificial intelligence buildout are weighing on the market for new offerings. "IPO activity came in below expectations in the third quarter of 2026, as more concerns about AI spending, a 19-year high in bond yields and resumed rate hikes weighed on the fall pickup," Renaissance analysts wrote in a report to clients last week. The Renaissance IPO ETF peaked in June this year when SpaceX launched. "AI-related stuff, including the build-out of the big infrastructure, still has a lot of enthusiasm for it. Things like data centers, there's big demand there, but it's largely a commodity business," Ritter said. Analysts said that Oura, whose business is concentrated in its biometric ring product, likely faced its own set of issues. "I would draw a line [around] Peloton, GoPro, FitBit and Oura. Investors have been burned pretty badly by narrow consumer products, and that is the reaction Oura is getting," said Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson. "I don't think it has to do with tech or tech allocation, I think it has to do with a narrow consumer product." Companies themselves also have more alternatives than in the past to raise capital in private markets rather than public markets, lawyers who specialize in public markets said. "The depth of private capital and alternatives is enormous now, and much more complex and diverse," Ian Schuman, chair of capital markets and public company representation practices at Latham and Watkins, said. "You don't necessarily, absolutely need to tap the public markets, if you're not getting the value you want." – Gina Francolla contributed reporting.
document fetched 2026-09-30 03:01 · canonical https://cnbc.com/2026/09/29/ipo-postponements-are-accelerating-in-third-quarter-even-beyond-oura.html