Crocs Inc. offered the latest indication yet that its initial stock sale will be hot.
The Niwot shoemaker Monday boosted its expected offering price to $19 to $20 a share, up from $13 to $15, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company also increased the number of shares offered to 9.9 million, from 9 million.
Crocs is expected to price its shares today, meaning the company will debut Wednesday on Nasdaq under the ticker CROX.
“I’ll buy some,” said longtime Denver insurance agent Jack Dillon, 65. “It’s such a versatile shoe.”
Fast-growing Crocs, which manufactures funky, brightly colored clogs made of a so-called closed-cell resin material, could see its shares double, analysts said.
“It’s a supply-and-demand issue,” Francis Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop.com, said when asked why Crocs raised the offering price. “The awareness among the investment community has increased substantially.”
Gaskins said it is fairly common for a company to increase its share price in the days preceding an initial stock sale. But “they don’t usually boost it by this much,” he said.
Compared with the previous midpoint price, Crocs has upped its initial price by 39 percent. Expected proceeds have increased by 54 percent.
Gaskins said the offering’s lead underwriters, Piper Jaffray and Thomas Weisel Partners, “were overly conservative” in the previous estimates.
A similar scenario played out for Chipotle Mexican Grill, the Denver burrito chain that last month sold its shares publicly for the first time.
In the week leading up to the sale, Chipotle twice increased its price. Shares then surged on the first day of trading to $44, a 100 percent gain. Chipotle closed Monday at $47.71.
Does a similar fate await Crocs?
“Everyone who knows about them loves them,” Dillon said. “Once this product gets out there, the company will do well.”
Crocs, particularly popular among beachgoers and hospital workers because the shoes mold to the user’s feet and are made from an anti-bacterial material, plans to sell 4.95 million shares. Its current shareholders also will sell 4.95 million shares.
Crocs expects to raise $87.8 million from the offering, with proceeds going to retire debt and expand production, which at times has lagged demand.
The company will not keep proceeds from the shares sold by current shareholders, including the three founders, George Boedecker and high school friend Lyndon Hanson, both of Boulder, and Scott Seamans, who helped refine the shoes’ initial design.
Crocs will have an estimated market value of $741 million.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
