Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgages, made its public debut Thursday with 100 million shares at $18 per share. The Detroit company, which is now valued at $36 billion, earlier filed to issue 150 million shares at $20-22 per share before downgrading prior to the offering.
"As we think about what's important to us right now, it's really finding the right investors for us, more so than it is about the price," Julie Booth, CFO of Rocket Companies, told Cheddar. "We want to get those investors that understand us and understand the long-term vision that we have."
This marks another major IPO — the third largest this year — amid an uncertain economic climate, though Booth said Rocket Mortgages is adapting well to the new normal.
"We have been able to have the majority of our team members working from home, and it's gone very well, she said. "In fact, our production is seeing record levels right now."
While the mortgage giant is especially tethered to macroeconomic conditions, the housing market has been robust amid an otherwise lackluster economic recovery.
Booth attributes this to the unique way that coronavirus has made people think more about "the importance of home," as many workers continue to work remotely.
"I think folks are really considering how they want to be able to work best, and that is attributing a lot of the demand coming to market right now for new housing," Booth said.
Rocket Mortgages also anticipates interest rates to stay low for the foreseeable future and for demand to continue apace.
"If you think about the number of mortgages out there in an $11 trillion market, the majority of those loans are able to refinance right now and obtain a lower rate," Booth said. "With about two and a half trillion dollars or so of capacity in the industry at any point in time for a given year, there is quite a long runway for us to work through that as an industry."
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
