After its debut in the public market last Friday, ride-hailing company Lyft's stock went up to as much as 23 percent, opening unapologetically at $87.24 a piece, and has since then settled to moderate gains that bode well for the company and its foray into trading.
The company's initial public offering marks the first time a tech company this big has gone public this 2019.
As a matter of fact, the prices were more (and higher) than expected, as the company said on Thursday that it had sold 32.5 million shares for $72 apiece. That's at the high end of the stated range, which was already boosted from an initial range of $62 to $68, meaning that the company were able to raise around $2.3 billion from the listing, which, while not at all surprising, is a tremendous success for company that's gone public this late.
Of course, the IPO still ended at a modest number, even for a giant tech company. Per a release from the company, the stock ended trading 8.7 percent up at around $78.29. Despite this, the appetite for the company's stock was strong, having more than 6 million shares traded while the IPO was going on. By the time the market had closed, around 70 million shares had been exchanged by those who participated.
The tech company then ended its first day with a market valuation to $22.2 billion
In a statement to CNBC, Wedbush managing director Dan Ives said, "This is a lightning start for Lyft's stock as investors are salivating [over] owning a piece of the $1 trillion ridesharing market. The robust start to trading is also a clear positive for other tech names that are watching Lyft to gauge investor demand and Street reaction on this transformational consumer tech name."
Presently, the number 2 ride-hailing company revealed that it has received a high revenue in its IPO, despite posting a loss of $900 million for 2018.
In another interview with CNBC, co-founder and President John Zimmer said, "We're ready to be held accountable. We're excited. In our case, I think what we've seen in talking to investors [is] that more people are maybe surprised to see the numbers that we're putting out and I think this is a great part of the process. For us this wasn't the goal - this is a milestone along the way - but we feel like it helps us with additional access to capital."
