The big news last week for Wall Street observers was the May 10 initial public offering (IPO) of common stock for New Skies Satellite BV. If the performance of that stock in its first three days of trading leading up to this issue’s publication deadline are an indicator, the stock should do well.

The stock hit the ground running and closed 8 cents above its IPO price of $16.50 per share. But the story does not end there. The stock continued to rise throughout the next two days, closing at $16.75 and $17.10 on May 11 and 12, respectively. This is the bump that many were hoping for from Panamsat when that stock went public March 17 but had to wait until this month to finally see it materialize.

The early trading above the IPO price for New Skies also came at a time the overall market experienced a week of ups and downs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a benchmark used to gauge the overall health of the financial markets, was down May 10, closing at 10,281.11, compared to 10,384.34 the previous day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly recovered May 12, closing at 10,300.25 before dropping to 10,189.48.

Two other benchmarks, the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index experienced fluctuations that mirrored the movement of the Dow Jones Industrials, closing down May 10, rebounding slightly May 11 and dropping again May 12.

New Skies probably was helped by the fact that Panamsat continued to increase. The stock began last week at $18.10, and after a 2-cent drop May 10, climbed to $18.30 May 11 and $18.65 May 12.

Given that performance, investors and observers in both New Skies and Panamsat should be pleased that the stock was able to hold its own and grow in spite of the market’s overall turbulence, and other companies looking to test the IPO waters may be able to proceed with less uncertainty as to how the market will react to a future IPO.

The next big test of how the market perceives the value of Panamsat will come May 16 when the company holds its first quarterly earnings conference call. Unless the call yields some dramatically negative news, we expect both Panamsat and New Skies to hold on to their gains. Look for coverage of the call in next week’s issue of Satellite News.

VSAT

New Skies and Panamsat were not the only ones in the satellite industry last week to hold their ground in spite of a turbulent market. ViaSat Inc., a provider of networking and communications equipment for government and commercial customers, also saw its stock price rise over the four days leading up to this issue’s deadline. ViaSat closed May 6 at $17.63 and went on a run, closing up each day and reaching $18.98 May 12, up 49 cents from its previous closing price.

The stock likely received a push from strong fiscal year end numbers that it reported May 12. Among its highlights for the fiscal year ended April 1, ViaSat said it recorded record orders, revenues and earnings. In its fiscal 2005, ViaSat said it received $426.2 million in new orders and contracts, up from $346.6 million in fiscal 2004. Revenues and net income increased in fiscal 2005 to $345.9 million and $19.3 million, respectively, up from $278.6 million and $13.2 million during the same period a year ago.

ViaSat noted that its government segment reported record revenues of $175.4 million in fiscal 2005, up 20.4 percent from the previous year. Its commercial segment generated record revenues of $177.4 million in fiscal 2005, up 14.9 percent from fiscal 2004. The company cited sustained strength in new orders as the main driver for its record financial performance.