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Stitch Fix's IPO Showcases Rarest of Unicorn Traits: Profit

Stitch Fix's IPO Showcases Rarest of Unicorn Traits: Profit

(Bloomberg) -- Venture capital-backed Stitch Fix Inc. has posted a profit and has a clean balance sheet, setting it apart from a bulging portion of IPO-bound companies.

While the online personal-shopping service lost $594,000 in its last fiscal year, it racked up net income of $33.2 million and $20.9 million during the two previous years. Financials like that are sure to pique the interest of investors who see a pattern.

Only a quarter of the technology companies that listed in 2015 and 2016 were profitable and just 17 percent in 2014, according to analysis by Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida’s business school. The last time we saw these levels? Just before the dot-com bubble burst and the year before the recession.

Stitch Fix's IPO Showcases Rarest of Unicorn Traits: Profit

ForeScout Technologies Inc. and Aquantia Corp. -- two unprofitable tech companies -- are expected to price their IPOs in the next week.

--With assistance from Alex Sherman and Shira Ovide

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Barinka in New York at abarinka2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.