Cramer: Facebook Boosting IPO Momentum

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - The IPO market is HOT and it's not all froth.

This week IPOs including organic foods company Annie's (BNNY), hospital mobile communications company Vocera (VCRA), and mobile advertising company Millennial Media (MM) all popped big when they began trading in the open markets this week. Jim Cramer attributes this to two key issues, the first is the looming Facebook IPO and the second is low expectations going into the IPOs.

Many institutional investors are very interested in getting involved in the Facebook IPO which is expected in May. Cramer says these investors are buying into recent IPO issues and holding the stocks, to put themselves in a good position with the underwriters so that they can get a piece of the Facebook IPO. This is increasing demand for current issues and helping to drive the spike in their initial trades.

On top of that, a number of these deals weren't expected to be hot. Cramer gives Annie's as an example. Excitement for the offering was low initially, especially with Hain Celestial, another organic food company already trading publicly. But the stock jumped 89% for the best first day pop since May of last year.

When discussing the price range the bankers placed on these companies, which could be viewed by some as an automatic discount for the institutional investors, Cramer says the market will determine if the pricing is fair. He points to Demandware (DWRE), ExactTarget (ET) and Yelp (YELP) as companies that soared on their first day of trading, but have proven profitable as they continue to rise.

As for a frothy IPO market, Cramer doesn't view this as a frothy market by any means. Right now stocks are not at the top of investors' lists, they actually prefer investments in gold and real estate over stocks. He says "Could there be moments when IPOs are a little too exciting? Yeah, but we haven't had that in a long time. It takes longer than we think."

Finally, for retail investors Cramer says if you are interested in a specific IPO always check with your broker to see if it makes sense for you to get involved and how best to do it.