A year ago, Pittsburgh's public tech companies saw the overall price of their shares fare worse than that of the broader Nasdaq index, though it's been more of a mixed-bag performance for the stock price of the region's largest tech firms over these past 12 months.
Take Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) for example.
The Strip District-based autonomous vehicle developer with nearly 800 employees locally saw its stock price climb from $1.16 per share on Jan. 3, 2023, to $4.37 per share on Dec. 29, 2023.
That's a 276% increase and is one that came, at least partially, amid a July 2023 close on the sale of $220 million in Class A common stock as part of an underwritten public offering as well as the close of a $600 million concurrent private placement deal. The $820 million in combined capital has prepped the company with enough cash to sustain operations "well into 2025" and beyond the launch of its autonomous trucking product before the end of this year, according to CEO and Co-Founder Chris Urmson.
"We’re all living through an uncertain time in the financial markets," Urmson said in a prepared statement back in July. "Investors see what we see – an incredible and unique opportunity to do something important and valuable in the world."
And then there's also Duolingo Inc., the East Liberty edtech company with about 600 employees, which posted its first profitable quarter as a public company last year only to do it again during the following and its most recent fiscal quarter. Duolingo's stock started 2023 at $70.93 per share only for it to soar to $226.85 per share by year's end, an increase of over 219%. Duolingo is actively scouting to expand its local office footprint amid this period of sustained growth for the company.
Ansys Inc., the Canonsburg-based developer of advanced engineering simulation software, also saw successful growth in its stock price over the past year, up more than 52% to $362.88 per share at the end of 2023 compared to the $238.64 per share its stock fetched at the start of last year.
But to beat the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Pittsburgh tech companies in 2023 had to post gains greater than Nasdaq's 41% return in 2023, a triumphant year for the index given that it lost a third of its value in 2022.
Coherent Corp., the Saxonburg-based maker of semiconductors and lasers, saw its stock price net a gain of nearly 25% in 2023 and ended the year at $43.53 per share.
Two Pittsburgh-area tech companies saw their stock price trade lower at the end of the year compared to the start of it.
Mastech Digital Inc., an IT services firm, saw its stock price fall to $8.43 per share as of Dec. 29, 2023, a decline of more than 26% compared to the price of $34.86 per share it had on Jan. 3, 2023.
And Smith Micro Software Inc., a developer of white-label software for mobile and cable operators, had its stock price fall by over 63% last year; it started 2023 with a price of $2.24 per share and ended the year at $0.83 per share.
