A few months back, I shared some stats on initial public offerings (IPOs). I’d learned that 2021 had the highest number of IPOs (1,035) in more than twenty-five years. The next year it dropped off a cliff; 181 IPOs were completed in 2022.

We have right at two months remaining in 2023, and I wanted to see how IPO activity this year stacks up. As of today, we’ve seen 131 IPOs. For context, the lowest number of IPOs since the great financial crisis, 133, was in 2016. This year will likely end up with the second-lowest number of IPOs in that period.

I view IPOs as an indicator of public-market investor sentiment. The data shows that sentiment has gone from one extreme in 2021 to the other in 2023. 

If you want more data on annual IPO activity, take a look here.