By Jared Blikre
Publication Date: 2026-05-01 16:27:00
Alphabet (GOOGL) stock just had its best month — up nearly 34% — since Google was still a recent IPO.
October 2004 was Google’s first real breakout month as a public company, coming only a few months after its Nasdaq debut.
The move helped define April’s tech-led market rebound, when the biggest stocks again did the heaviest lifting.
April added roughly $1.2 trillion to Alphabet’s market value, or just over 50 times Google’s IPO valuation. It’s a reminder that Google followed one of Wall Street’s rarest IPO paths: It launched, held, and never really gave investors the usual reset.
Most IPOs don’t work that way.
Kathy Donnelly, co-author of “The Lifecycle Trade,” has said 91% of IPOs eventually undercut their first-day low.
That first-day low is an important line for IPO traders because it marks the point where early buyers are officially underwater. Once a new issue breaks below…
