Airbnb Inc shares more than doubled in their trading debut, propelling the home-rental company to a $100 billion-plus valuation and one of the biggest first-day pops on record.
The shares opened Thursday at $146 apiece, above the $68 initial public offering price. The listing comes 10 months after the coronavirus pandemic upended travel.
Airbnb’s shares surged after the company posted its most profitable quarter ever, overshadowing the competitive threats from traditional travel companies with tourism poised to rebound as covid vaccines are rolled out.
Yet the rally in Airbnb also remind some market veterans of the dot-com era. About 80 percent of companies going public in this record year for IPOs have yet to earn money, while four of the most popular stocks on the Robinhood app started trading publicly in 2020.
Airbnb priced its initial public offering well above a marketed range Wednesday, to raise about $3.5 billion. At the IPO price, its fully diluted valuation was $47 billion. At $146 per share, that number is more than $100 billion.
Airbnb listings are increasingly available in major Nigerian cities.