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Shares of Snap Inc., parent of the popular disappearing-message and camera-centric app Snapchat, rose by more than $8 in the first hours of trading Thursday, as the company watched the $17 price of its initial public offering of 200 million nonvoting shares soar by 50 percent as of mid-day Thursday.

The stock opened above $24 when the new offering began sales shortly after 11 a.m. It then rose above $25 a share, hitting $25.64 by 1:31 p.m.

The initial pricing valued the 5-year-old company, based in Los Angeles, at $24 billion. Earlier projections had expected the range of $14 to $16.

 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a publicly traded company.


Snap's Snapchat app is best known for disappearing messages and quirky facial filters for jazzing up selfies. It's popular with teenagers and younger millennials.

But despite Snapchat's popularity, user growth has slowed recently.

Snapchat started 2017 with 158 million daily active users, most of whom are people in their teens, 20s and early 30s.

LaVon Murphy, 45, a photographer in Portland, Ore., told The Associated Press that she uses Snapchat to stay in touch with her 17-year-old son.

Murphy also uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but analysts have questioned whether most people have time to work another social network into their schedule.

Snap's IPO is one of the most anticipated for a technology company since Twitter's stock market debut in 2013. Twitter is now valued at $11 billion.

In 2012, it was Facebook's IPO that capture the market's attention. Facebook is currently valued at $395 billion.

Facebook's Instagram is a major rival to Snapchat.

 reports that, according to people familiar with the deal, Snap executives took some unusual steps that could help bolster demand for the shares:



Analysts, investors and investment bankers have told the 

 that a successful Snap "debut could awaken what has been a largely dormant tech IPO market."
Snap is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol "SNAP."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Business and Economic News

Doreen McCallister

Author

After pricing its initial public offering of 200 million nonvoting shares at $17 each, Snap Inc., saw the stock rise to more than $25 a share.

Snapchat parent's stock soars on first day of trading

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