Pinterest lowballs IPO valuation, setting price below recent valuation

Pinterest plans to sell shares in its IPO at a price range pegging it below its latest private-market valuation, raising questions about public's appetite for tech stocks. 

In an updated regulatory filing on Monday, the digital scrapbooking site said it will put about 86.3 million shares up for sale at a price between $15 and $17 each. Pinterest is offering 75 million Class A shares. At the high end, that will value the company at $11.3 billion, or below the $12 billion private-market valuation assigned by venture capitalists and other private investors, according to The New York Times. 

Pinterest's lowball valuation comes after newly traded shares in Lyft, which went public earlier this month, drifted lower on concerns the stock may be overvalued. Like Lyft, Pinterest's revenue is growing quickly, although its losses are mounting. Pinterest warned in its Monday regulatory filing that it "may never achieve or maintain profitability."

Pinterest claims more than 250 million active monthly users and more than 2 billion monthly searches.

The platform allows people to search for and "pin" images that interest them, whether it's fashion, sports, pets or travel.

The San Francisco company had revenue of $756 million last year, a 60 percent bump from 2017.

Pinterest's stock will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the "PINS" ticker symbol.