Pricing it right. There's an element of chance in any successful initial public offering, but investment bankers do control certain key elements of the deal, notably pricing. So one way to tell how underwriters did is to look at the aftermarket performance of the issues they brought public, as we have done in the tables above (limiting the comparison to companies that managed three or more IPOs during 1986). The rankings are based on percentage change in the prices of new issues managed by the concern, calculated by adding up the offering prices of each company's IPOs, then comparing that total to the sum of their closing prices on December 31, 1986. And what does it all mean? Well, if you had invested in a deal managed by one of the underwriters on the right, chances are you'd be out some money. Then again, if one of those firms had handled your offering, you might well be hearing from angry shareholders right now.

UNDERWRITERS: HOT HANDS

No. of IPOs % Change in

No. of Whose Aftermarket Prices of

Rank & Underwriter IPOs Managed Price Rose IPOs Managed

1. Whale Securities 4 4 112%

(New York City)

2. Laidlaw Adams & 3 1 69

Peck

(New York City)

3. Piper, Jaffray 3 1 34

& Hopwood

(Minneapolis)

4. F. N. Wolf 3 3 33

(New York City)

5. Hambrecht & Quist 5 3 32

(San Francisco)

6. Robertson Colman 4 4 32

(San Francisco)

7. D. H. Blair 14 6 17

(New York City)

8. Furman Selz 4 2 17

Mager Dietz & Birney

(New York City)

9. McKinley Square 4 4 15

Allsopp

(New York City)

10. Lazard Freres 4 2 14

(New York City)

UNDERWRITERS: COLD HANDS

No. of IPOs % Change in

No. of Whose Aftermarket Prices of

Rank & Underwriter IPOs Managed Price Rose IPOs Managed

1. First Affiliated 6 0 -42%

Securities

(San Diego)

2. Legg Mason Wood 3 0 -30

Walker (Baltimore)

3. Boettcher & Co. 4 0 -27

(Denver)

4. Prudential-Bache 9 1 -24

Securities

(New York City)

5. Blackstock & Co. 3 1 -24

(Jacksonville)

6. Montgomery 4 2 -21

Securities

(San Francisco)

7. Blunt Ellis 3 1 -18

& Loewi (Chicago)

8. Ladenburg, Thalmann 13 3 -17

(New York City)

9. Steinberg & Lyman 3 0 -14

(New York City)

10. Drexel Burnham 41 7 -13

Lambert

(New York City)

SOURCE: GOING PUBLIC: The IPO Reporter, New York City