The study examined the short-term price behavior of initial public offerings (IPOs) of equities listed on the top emerging market exchanges during the period from 2005 to 2012. We investigated whether underpricing could be explained with models based on stakeholder rationality and those concerning behavioral factors. There were extremely high initial, two- and four-week returns in the three top emerging markets during the sample period. The results documented the existence of significant differences in IPO short-term returns between initial equity issues offered in hot- versus cold-and-neutral markets. It was also found that the amount of money left on the table during initial public offerings was related most to the uncertainty, signaling and timing proxies. The study showed that the explanations for high initial returns were, to some extent, influenced by IPO timing.