137 initial public offerings have been priced so far this year. A total of 12 IPOs priced and 10 new filed the week of August 8th, 2005. Of all the IPOs so far this year 81 are currently trading up, 35 are down and 21 are trading flat with their offer price.

There are 7 deals scheduled to price this week, hoping to raise about $3 billion.

IPO PERFORMANCE – Advancers and Decliners

Advancers

Brokerage company Refco Inc. (RFX: chart) priced its IPO of 26.5 million shares at $22 per share, above the estimated range, raising a more-than-expected $583 million.

Refco’s common stock began trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange at $26.25 a share, up 19% from its IPO price. The company's shares gained 25% at the first day trading.

The New York-based company had set the planned offering at 25 million shares within $19-$21 each.

Refco sold 12.5 million shares, and 14 million shares were offered by selling stockholders, including private equity company Thomas H. Lee Partners. The company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 3.98 million additional shares at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments.

The deal's managers were led by CS First Boston, Goldman Sachs and Banc of America Securities.

Refco showed the latest successful entry for a specialized financial services company so far this year following International Securities Exchange (ISE: chart) and OptionsXpress Holdings (OXPS: chart).

The company’s shares gained 24.1% to close at $27.3 per share on Friday.

Card - payment processor Heartland Payment Systems Inc. (HPY: chart) also began trading well above its offering price on Thursday. The company’s shares opened at $22.50, up 25% from the initial offer price.

Heartland Payment priced its IPO of 6.7 million shares at $18 a share, above its proposed price of $14 to $16 per share. The shares closed at $24.51, up 36% from the offer price on the first day of trading.

2.6 million shares were sold by the company and 4.1 million were offered by the selling stockholders, at a price of $18.00 per share. Heartland and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1 million additional shares to cover over-allotments.

Citigroup, CS First Boston, Robert Baird, William Blair, KeyBanc Capital Markets and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey headed the list of underwriters of the offering.

The company closed at $26.49 on Friday, up 41.2% from its IPO price.

The initial public offering of containership-owner Seaspan Corp. (SSW: chart) was priced at $21 per share on Thuesday. Seaspan has filed for an offering of 28.6 million shares within a range of $20-$22 a share. Hong Kong-based company’s shares rose slightly in market debut on NYSE, closing at $21.12 a share.

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were the lead managers on the deal. Underwriters have the option to buy additional 4.3 million shares to cover excess demand.

Of the eight shipping IPOs to debut this year, five priced below their expected range.

The company closed at $21.27 on Friday, up 1.3% from its IPO price.

Fertilizer maker and distributor CF Industries (CF: chart) priced its offering of 41.25 million shares at $16 each, at the midpoint of its $15-$17 range, raising $660 million. Shares closed at $16.20, 1.2% above the offering price on the first day of trading.

Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were the lead managers on the deal. Underwriters have an option to buy additional 6.19 million shares to cover over-allotments.