Shares in online insurance broker Quotesmith.com Inc flopped on their Nasdaq debut Tuesday, closing nearly 12% below their offering price. The Darien, Illinois-based company sold 5 million shares at $11 – the top of the proposed price range – in its initial public offering only to see them trade as low as $9.375 in their opening session before finishing the day at $9.6875. The high for the day was just $11.50 as 7.1 million shares changed hands.
Quotesmith, which gives consumers online quotes and the ability to purchase insurance from over 300 different agencies, booked a net loss of $196,000 last year on revenue of $5.6m. The company said that in connection with the IPO financial software house Intuit Inc has purchased 272,727 shares for a total of $3m. All of the shares were sold by the company and the offering was handled by Hambrecht & Quist LLC, PaineWebber Inc, ABN Amro Inc and Charles Schwab & Co. The stock is trading under the symbol QUOT.
