Jamf IPO sees share price jump over 50%

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Going public during a pandemic has changed the process dramatically for debuting companies like Jamf, which started trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

Jamf, which helps companies, schools, and other large organizations manage their fleets of iPhones and Mac computers, priced its shares at $26, higher than planned and giving the company a stock market value of about $3 billion. In active trading on Wednesday, the shares shot up as high as $51, before closing at $39.20, a 51% gain from the IPO price.

CEO Dean Hager says that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to stay put at headquarters in Minneapolis instead of hitting the road for weeks of travel and in-person meetings to promote the IPO.

“Spending each evening with my family, sleeping in my own bed—not so bad during a road show when you hear about how these road shows typically go,” he tells Fortune.

And the virtual meetings he had with investors were more efficient, he says. “I think they’re more effective, I honestly do,” Hager says. “You’re face-to-face with everybody. They’re extraordinarily effective meetings.”

The pandemic has not hurt Jamf’s business much, Hager says. The company has over 40,000 customers—including Apple itself—which have deployed more than 17 million Apple devices.

In an early peek at its second-quarter results, Jamf disclosed revenues between $61.1 million and $62.3 million, which is a gain of 26% to 29% over the same period last year. That’s a slower rate of growth than in the first quarter, when Jamf’s revenue increased 37% to $60.4 million. It also expects to report a second-quarter profit of $2.7 million to $3.9 million versus a loss of $4.4 million in 2019.

“Of course, we saw the same macroeconomic impact that every other business saw,” Hager explains. “The difference with Jamf is, one, we had a very resilient business model ourselves with recurring, all-subscription revenue. In addition, while we did see the macroeconomic headwinds, we have specific workflows that are in need right now.”

Those workflows more in demand from customers during the pandemic include helping doctors make virtual visits with a simple videoconferencing app that doesn’t require setup by the patients. Jamf also helps teachers manage student use of classroom tech like iPads even in a virtual classroom setting. And the company’s technology allows a customer’s IT department to set up a new Mac or iPhone out of the box from Apple without needing physical access to the device.

Recently, Apple bought a small Jamf rival called Fleetsmith. The four-year-old startup says it provides initial setup, software updates, and security services for Apple devices in corporate and school settings. Apple also already offers some help for large organizations managing many devices via its Apple Business Manager app.

“It’s really not competitive,” Hager says. “There’s a very, very thin overlapping of technology to the point that it’s immaterial to us. Our partnership with Apple over the years has always been that we embrace what they build, and we extend it for the enterprise and for education.”

The Fleetsmith acquisition should lead Apple to improve services like the Business Manager app that Jamf already relies on to serve its customers, he adds. “We applaud it because all that means is our solutions will be better for our customers.”

Excluding about 4.5 million shares sold in the IPO by existing shareholders, Jamf sold 13.5 million new shares and raised $320 million. Some of those proceeds will go toward repaying a $205 million bank loan. That should help lower or eliminate Jamf’s quarterly interest expenses of about $5 million, further improving profitability.