Are COCO Stock Investors Happy, Or Did They Miss Out?

It could be the latest beverage trend: The Vita Coco Co. (NASDAQ: COCO), maker of coconut water and other coconut-based beverages, has seen its revenue grow 66.9% and its profits soar 241.9% since its October 2021 IPO! But has its share price kept pace with its financials?

Here's how Vita Coco investors who bought in early have done, and how more recent buyers have fared.

Image source: Getty Images.

Recent investors: A surprise pop

If you'd bought shares of Vita Coco a year ago on Dec. 8, 2024, your investment would have basically tracked the market for most of the year, although Vita Coco's shares were a lot more volatile (which you'd expect from such a small company). From Dec. 8, 2024, to Nov. 1, 2025, that investment was returning 13.4% to the S&P 500's 12.3%: respectable but not outstanding.

But in November, after a strong Q3 earnings report, shares took off. They were boosted further by the news that the White House would be providing tariff relief to agricultural products not commonly grown in the U.S., including coconut water.

That pop brought the company's one-year returns to 48.4%, compared to just 12.4% for the S&P 500:

But has that success carried over to medium-term investors?

Three-year investors: A runaway hit

The recent share price pop was icing on an already-sweet coconut cake for three-year investors. Thanks to a very successful first half of 2023, in which the company's share price more than doubled, investors who bought Vita Coco shares three years ago on Dec. 8, 2022, were already trouncing the market before the big November surge.

Now, shares of Vita Coco are boasting a 310.5% three-year return, as opposed to the (still very impressive) 72.8% return of the S&P 500.

Well, the returns for the company's earliest public shareholders must be even better, right?

Since inception: Still good, but not better

Surprisingly, investors who bought into Vita Coco on its first day of public trading on Oct. 21, 2021, actually made less money than those who bought in three years ago.

While the stock's returns of 300% since its IPO (which was just over four years ago) are impressive, and handily beat the S&P 500's 50.5% return, they're slightly lower than its three-year returns. That's because -- as often happens with stocks in the wake of their IPOs -- shares of Vita Coco experienced a post-IPO drop in November and December of 2021. They stayed underwater for most of 2022, which means investors were able to pick up shares on the cheap three years ago.

Even though things ultimately worked out -- swimmingly! -- for Vita Coco's IPO investors, it's a good reminder that potential shareholders only have a limited amount of information about a stock at its IPO, and there's a lot of value in waiting until a company has released at least a handful of quarterly earnings reports before buying in, so they know what kind of value they're getting for their money.

John Bromels has positions in Vita Coco. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.