175 initial public offerings have been priced so far this year and as of this Friday, Oct 28, 2005:

- 94 IPOs are currently trading above Initial offering Price;
- 76 are trading below the offering price;
- and 5 are trading at their offer price.

A total of 6 IPOs were priced and 5 companies filed to go public during the week of October 24th, 2005. There are 4 deals scheduled to be priced during the coming week, hoping to raise about $800 million.

IPO PERFORMANCE

ADVANCERS

The oil drilling and lifeboat services company Hercules Offshore (HERO: chart) priced 9.2 million shares on Thursday, at $20 a share, raising $184 million. The company priced the offering at the high end of the initial $18-$20 filing range.

The stock closed at $21.90 a share, gaining 9.5% from the offer price on the first day of trading and 12.5% from the offer price.

CS First Boston and Citigroup were lead managers of the offering, while Simmons, Deutsche Bank and Howard Weil were serving as co-managers.

Hercules offered 6.25 million shares, while the selling stockholders sold the remaining 2.95 million shares. In addition, the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 1.38 million additional shares to cover excess demand.

The shares of common stock have been approved to trade on the Nasdaq National Market.

Hercules was formed out of the acquisition of five rigs from Parker Drilling (PKD: chart) for $39 million in 2004. Since then, the company has made five additional acquisitions.

The Houston, Texas-based company provides shallow-water drilling and liftboat services to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industry. The company currently owns a fleet of eight jackup rigs that can drill in maximum water depths ranging from 85 to 250 feet and a fleet of 39 liftboats with leg lengths ranging from 105 to 260 feet.

Hercules Offshore''s IPO comes during big profits in the oil and gas sector amidst global soaring demand for energy and rising exploration activities.

Medical devices developer and manufacturer NxStage Medical (NXTM: chart) priced 5.5 million shares on Thursday, at $10 per share, raising $57.1 million. The original filing range of $13-$15 was lowered to $11-$12 on Wednesday.

Merrill Lynch and Thomas Weisel were the lead managers on the deal, while William Blair and JMP Securities were co-managers to the deal.

Shares of NxStage began trading on the Nasdaq. The stock closed at $11.76 per unit, or 17.6% up, on the first day of trading.

The Lawrence, Massachusetts-based company has granted the underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase 825,000 additional shares.

NxStage Medical is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets systems for the treatment of end-stage renal disease and acute kidney failure.

The company’s stock ended the week at $11.10, up 11% from the offering price.

Electro-Optical Sciences (MELA: chart), another medical device company, priced 4 million shares at $5 on Friday. The original filing was for 3 million shares in the $10-$12 range. The range was lowered twice to a final $5.50-$6.50.

The Irvington, New York-based company offered all of the shares.