CareInsite soars in IPO

June 16, 1999: 3:08 p.m. ET

Shares in Net health-care venture vault more than 95 pct. on first day

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of CareInsite, which is developing an Internet-based health-care billing network, rose more than 95 percent on their first day of trading Wednesday afternoon.
     Stock in Elmwood, Park N.J.-based CareInsite soared 17-1/8, or 95.1 percent, to 35-1/8 at its peak on the first day of trading Wednesday. In late action, the shares were trading at 32-7/16.
     CareInsite sold 5.7 million shares at an initial price of $18 per share.
     The company is developing a secure, Internet-based health-care electronic commerce network that links physicians, payers, suppliers and patients. CareInsite's network will provide physicians with access to relevant clinical, administrative and financial information on payers and suppliers.
     While health-care IPOs have done well recently, CareInsite stock, which trades on Nasdaq, also benefited from a solid day on Wall Street. The Nasdaq composite index rose 82 points in late afternoon trading Wednesday to 2497.
     But investors have also snatched up companies combining health-care and the Internet of late. Last week, shares in online health-care network drkoop.com, a group of Web sites led by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, jumped 39 percent in its first morning of trading.
     Merrill Lynch &Co., Warburg Dillon Read LLC and Wit Capital Corp. underwrote the CareInsite IPO.