And the winner is… newly listed Iowa public company, KemPharm Inc.

At least it was before the first week of 2016 saw the U.S. stock market, led by turmoil in China, have its worst start to the year ever, and it’s worst week since 2011.

KemPharm, which led all Iowa-based publicly traded companies by ending its first year on the market up 69 percent, then saw its value drop by 17 percent in the first six days of 2016.

Of course KemPharm wasn’t alone in feeling early year pain, as the Iowa Index – an unweighted average price of all 22 Iowa publicly traded companies – was down 6 percent and the DOW and NASDAQ were each down more than 5 percent as of close of markets on Jan. 11.  

Yes, as we pause once again to annually analyze stock performance it’s easy to see that 2015 was certainly a mixed performance. Just 12 of the 22 companies posted gains in 2015, versus 16 of 21 in 2014. Overall the Iowa Index was up just 0.82 percent in 2015, compared to 2014’s 11.75 percent increase, and 2013’s remarkable 35.98 percent increase. However, it should be noted that because our index is an unweighted average, without KemPharm’s addition to the Iowa Index, 
it would have had a 2.96 percent increase.

The Iowa Index was on track for a much better year, as November wound to a close with the Iowa Index up more than 6 percent. But a rough December wiped away most of the year’s progress.

Still despite the slowdown in growth, the Iowa Index is still up 51.80 percent in the past five years, and 110.10 percent since the depths of the recession at the end of 2008.

U.S. Bank

KemPharm Inc.

Flexsteel Industries Inc.