TechTarget shares climb on first day

TechTarget Inc., one of the week’s most anticipated initial public offerings, climbed sharply in first-day trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market today.

The Needham company provides online content aimed at bringing together buyers and sellers of corporate information technology products.

Its shares rose $1.79, or 14 percent, to close at $14.79, from the IPO price of $13, set by underwriters Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Some 7.7 million shares were sold into the oversubscribed offering, which priced at the midpoint of the expected per-share price range of $12 to $14.

It’s the 13th technology stock to go public this year, representing 18 percent of all IPOs priced in the United States, according to Thomson Financial. At this time last year, eight technology stocks, representing 12 percent of all IPOs, had gone public.

The company operates 36 websites that focus on specific IT sectors, such as storage, security, and networking. It complements that with in-person events and three IT magazines.

TechTarget, which had 4.9 million registered users at the end of March, derives almost all of its revenue by selling advertising to its 1,000-plus active advertisers.
The company generated revenue of $18.3 million in the first quarter, resulting in a net profit of $317,000.
(Dow Jones/AP)