Pluralsight IPO

Pluralsight IPO

Hey friends! Surprise, it's me again! Coming back atcha with another IPO served up hot and ready to devour! I have a super fun and interesting company on the books for today. I personally have never heard of this concept before but I think it's pretty genius and has a huge potential! Ashley, the anticipation is killing me, who is it? A neato company nameddddd.... PluralSight!

Pluralsight (Ticker PS) was founded in 2004 and headquartered in Farmington, Utah and was originally started as a classroom training company by which companies would send their employees to for events and skills training. But with the internet trudging ahead in full force in 2007 they switch to primarily deal with online video training. Their expertise ranges from software developing, IT, and creative applications and can be for you personally, a small business or an enterprise itself! Pluralsight has quickly made a name for itself in just 14 years of life. Between just the years of 2013 and 2016 Pluralsight acquired a total of 8 different e-learning companies to grow their courses, talent, leadership, and tech. Those acquired included include PeepCode, TrainSignal, Tekpub, Digital Tutors, Smarterer, Code School, HackHands, and Train Simple. These guys are serious! In 2017 they also ranked #20 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list.

How does the company work? Pluralsight uses a monthly subscription model that gives access to individuals and businesses for skills training. Instructors, also called "authors" are payed a royalty based on how many times their videos are viewed. In the previous year Pluralsight did $166.8 million in revenue, which is a change from the year before of 22%. Last year business customers made up 82% of their total billings. As with most newer business, losses are still a part of daily life. In 2017, Pluralsight lost a not-so-small $96.5 million as opposed to the previous year of $20.6 million. This is mostly due to their increase in marketing and sales expenses.

When Pluralsight filed for their IPO they sighted that they knew that this space is quite competitive. A few right off the bat they recognize is Cornerstone OnDemand, Udemy, Udacity, and Linkedin Learning (apparently the previous Lynda.com). Okay I know I said I have never heard of this concept before, I have to admit yes, I have heard of Udemy before. Jerremy has several courses on there actually. From what I can tell Udemy has a wider range of topics to learn while Pluralsight seems to have more catered and intense courses mostly centered around tech topics. After a lot of research it appears that in 2016 Linkedin Learning was expected to bring in about $90 million in revenues. Udacity's estimated revenue is said to be around $24 million. Cornerstone OnDemand seems also to be a mixed bag when it comes to their specialties including Human resources, training, and recruiting. Their revenue in 2017 was $481.9 million, but again they do more than just courses.

Right now Cornerstone OnDemand and Linked in are both traded on the NYSE. At the moment, Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) is trading around the $54 mark over 100% of what it's IPO open price was back in 2011.

Here was some analysis Jerremy did on PS. This is his daily chart #1 

This is a stock Jerremy is going to keep his eye on for sure. He knows how strongly online educational platforms will grow over the next decade. And most specifically, how crucial and integral coding, software development and IT operations will be. I could see this company selling many of it's products to both companies and individuals. This could be a short term set up on PS. 

Sounds like a fun one to keep our eyes on! I love it. Well, that's a wrap! Thanks for coming along for the fun! You know I will be back soon so keep your eyes peeled for another one in the future!

- Ashley

"It's not about someone making a difference on their own; it's about everybody pulling together to make a difference." Paolo Nutini