Upland Software faces uphill battle: 10th worst first day return for a tech IPO in 10 years

Upland Software (UPLD), which offers a suite of acquired cloud-based enterprise work management software, dropped 19% on its debut, giving it the 10th worst first day performance for a technology IPO in the past 10 years. Upland priced at the low end of the range and raised $46 million.

Other 2014 tech IPOs have typically seen a first-day spike (group averages 25% on the first day) followed by poor trading in the aftermarket (-8%). Of the 48 tech IPOs this year, 5 others have ended the day below issue; only Viggle had a worse first-day than Upland this year, falling 28% when it uplisted from the OTC Markets to the NASDAQ in April.

Upland's drop is unusual not only because it is a technology IPO, but because it is in the enterprise software space. Recent software providers like HubSpot (HUBS) and CyberArk Software (CYBR) saw high first day pops with positive follow-through. The next worst enterprise software IPO in the past ten years was CDC Software (CDCS), which fell 16.8% on its debut. Like Upland, it was a rollup of enterprise software companies, except based in China.

This year has seen 240 companies go public, and 4 of the year's 10 worst first-day drops have occurred in the past 30 days (MOLG, FSAM, FWP, UPLD).