Stock Watch: Neoforma.com IPO Takes Off

While many stocks were sold off on Monday, the initial public offering of Neoforma.com (Nasdaq: NEOF) performed like a typical high-flying, shot-from-a-cannon, business-to-business IPO. Neoforma.com, which provides business-to-business (B2B) services for the medical supplies market, priced seven million shares at $13, above the original price range of $10 to $13.

The stock more than quadrupled in its first day of trading, gaining 39-3/8 to 52-3/8, a climb of nearly 303 percent. Neoforma.com has an exclusive deal to sell medical supplies on leading business-to-business community site VerticalNet, which was bolstered last week when Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) invested $100 million in the company. Neoforma.com also has alliances with Dell and Healtheon/WebMD.

Even though competition from more established companies like Chemdex is fierce, this company looks like a business-to-business play with a pretty solid foundation.