Was Castlight Health's explosive IPO a powerful validation of health-related software products or one more sign of an ominous stock market bubble? Its meteoric coming-out party has Wall Street seers clearly divided over its significance.

The maker of software designed to help companies save money on their health care costs went public March 14 at $16 a share and closed its first day at $38.85 — a leap of nearly 150 percent. While many who watched the run-up saw it as driven by the enterprise's thirst for ways to control spiraling health care costs, other analysts soon worried that the shares were overheated, driven by an unrealistic market destined for a fall.

By Monday, CSLT's share has cooled a bit, to $37.25 in heavy trading. But the stir it caused the previous Friday continued to galvanize those who follow health care.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.