Editor’s Note: Before Fadel Lawandy joined Chapman University, where he is the director of the C. Larry Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance and director of the Janes Financial Center, he was a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The Business Journal’s special report this year highlights the fastest growing Orange County publicly traded companies by revenue growth over a two-year period (see page 31). This Leader Board highlights their stock performance.
2024 was marked by a flurry of activity in the public company market in Orange County, and the Chapman University OC25 (“CUOC25”) Index captured a great deal of that dynamic environment.
CUOC25 had a total return gross of dividends of 11.85% for the calendar year ending 2024. While CUOC25’s return is notably lower than the 25% return on the S&P 500, the index’s performance slightly exceeds that of the S&P 500 after correcting for the bias caused by the “Mag-7” which represented 54% of the return on the S&P.
Boot Barn Holding Inc., coming in at #1 in total return, leads the pack of the CUOC25 constituents. Almost doubling its stock value in 2024, it appears that the market was intent on rewarding the company for a well-executed strategy that saw an increase in same-store sales and the opening of 55 new stores in 2024 bringing the company’s total store count to 400.
Not to be outdone, Glaukos Corp., not too far behind, came in at #2, for the second year in a row, with a total return of approximately 89%. Investors continue to grow more confident in the company’s favorable outlook with increasing demand for Glaukos’s iStent, the company’s flagship product, and the favorable clinical updates for its iDose product. This marks back-to-back years with company stock returns exceeding 80% (82% total return in 2023).
Rounding out the top three was TTM Technologies Inc. with a total return of approximately 57%. TTM’s exemplary performance was the product of its continued strength in manufacturing technology solutions for the aerospace and defense industries and its work in generative AI.
Deserving of notable mention is ICU Medical Inc. with approximately 56% in total return to its shareholders in 2024, as the company began to realize the benefits of its strategic acquisition of Smiths Medical from Smiths Group plc, which took place in early 2022. ICU Medical’s 2023 stock drop of -37%, followed by the 2024 rebound, highlights the often-delayed realization of the benefits of mergers and acquisitions, if there are any to be had.
Mergers and Acquisition
2024 saw a number of transactions involving CUOC25 constituent companies which are of interest to watch how they playout over the next few years.
At a price tag of $2.3 billion in equity value, Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio Holding Company was one of the most recognized transactions in 2024 involving an Orange County based company. While the Vizio acquisition most certainly helps reinforce Walmart as the industry-leading TV panel seller, the strategic play was the accessibility to Vizio’s SmartCast Operating System. The operating system allows for engaging Vizio TV owners while aggregating up to 100 billion data points per day from millions of Vizio TV owners. This has the potential to accelerate Walmart’s media business.
n It has been a long-held strategy by Boston Scientific to drive growth through mergers and acquisitions. Consequently, it was no surprise when Boston Scientific acquired Axonics Inc., at an equity value of approximately $3.7 billion. Axonics has approximately 30% market share of the rapidly growing Sacral Neuromodulation, a treatment utilizing minimally invasive small implant to assist in regulating bladder and bowel function. This acquisition should strengthen Boston Scientific’s urology business and allow the company to leverage the growth potential of SNM.
n It was high time for Alteryx Inc. to go private when it was acquired by Insight Venture Partners LP and Clearlake Capital Group in a $4.4 billion take-private transaction. At the time of the acquisition, the company’s stock had dropped by over 70% from its peak in 2020, was in need of capital, and had the desire to escape the scrutiny and pressure to perform short-term that comes with being a public company. Under its new PE acquirers and having escaped the low public valuation that made raising capital difficult, the expectation is that Alteryx should be able to redirect its focus on to its primary strategic initiatives of transitioning to a cloud-based platform and AI development.
Initial Public Offerings
While some companies were opting to go private, others in Orange County came to market with their IPOs most notably Ingram Micro Holdings and CG Oncology Inc. as new inductees into the CUOC25.
Nearly three decades after going public for the first time in 1996 and two decades since the company went private, Ingram Micro returned to the public market in late 2024 with an IPO priced at $22 a share.
Ingram Micro’s inaugural IPO priced at $14 per share in 1996. In 2016, in a take-private acquisition, at an equity valuation of $6 billion, HNA Group (a Chinese based conglomerate) bought Ingram Micro to strategically strengthen its logistics capabilities as it positioned itself as a supply chain operator. By 2020, HNA Group was forced to go through restructuring due to unmanageable levels of debt on the company’s balance sheet. As part of the restructuring and in need of cash, the company sold Ingram Micro to Platinum Equity in an all-cash deal at an equity value of $7.2 billion.
In turn, Platinum Equity took Ingram Micro through a public offering in late October 2024. As of early March 2025, Ingram Mirco’s current market capitalization is approximately $4.9 Billion.
In January 2024, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Cantor brought CG Oncology to market at an IPO price of $19 per share in the first biotech to go public nationally for the year.
CG Oncology is a pre-revenue biotech company with a singular late-stage investigational targeted oncolytic—using viruses to kill cancerous cells—immunotherapy for the treatment of blader cancer. There is significant excitement surrounding this immunotherapy’s potential, shared by both medical professionals and Wall Street, which has propelled the company from a humble $380 million expected gross proceeds from its IPO to a current market capitalization of approximately $2 billion.
Chapman University OC25 in 2025
Early indications suggest that 2025 will be a year of significant advancement for the healthcare industry in Orange County as demonstrated by the substantive increase in the market capitalization of RxSight Inc. and Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc., warranting their addition to the constituents of the CUOC25 Index in late 2024.
As always, it is important to recognize that nothing in this article constitutes investment advice. You should always consult a properly licensed and credentialed professional prior to making any investment decisions.
