The long-awaited and previously withheld September 19^th IPO of Instacart (CART) on NASDAQ presented no surprises. The share price trajectory followed that of ARM, the most recent IPO.

The set price of a CART share was $30 and shortly after trading commenced rose sharply to $42.95. Thereafter a decline set in and CART closed at $33.70 suggesting that the reduced set price was fairly offered. The IPO brought in $420 million for the 8 percent of equity offered.

Instacart had an intraday market capitalization of $9,300 million on September 20^th less than a quarter of the eye-watering private valuation of $39,000 million in early 2021 when COVID-related orders were fueling prospects for the enterprise.  The Company achieved a 12-month trailing operating margin of 13.9 percent and a profit margin of 25.7 percent. Return on assets attained 7.4 percent and 28.4 percent on equity. At 13H00 on September 20^th CART traded at $31.37 with a trailing P/E of 53.9.