RJ and Makay

On the night of November 17, LPL announced its initial public offering of 15,657,482 shares of its common stock, priced at $30, and on the morning of November 18^th it became officially listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol LPLA. Trading officially began at 9:30 EST that morning, with LPL’s chairman and chief executive, Mark Casady, doing the honor of ringing the opening bell. Shares hit a high at midday, reaching a price of $33.84, and closed at $32.15.

The IPO comes after years of anticipation. In total, it netted $470 million for stockholders who sold at the opening price. In June, when the Broker-Dealer registered for the offering, it estimated the deal value might be as high as $600 million. None of the proceeds from the sale will go to the company.

A steep decline in trading activity is expected to weigh on profits at the biggest U.S. investment banks—Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

According to an article recently published in the Wall Street Journal, analysts are slashing estimates on the investment banks since the summer as businesses such as fixed-income trading (once the driver of profits) dried up,

While announced M&A volumes surged in August, overall investment banking revenue is expected to be mostly muted from a year ago; debt underwriting could partially offset declines in the advisory and equity underwriting businesses.