Earlier today, newly issued SNAP stock exploded, up more than 40 percent, in the first hours of its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The social media start up sold 200 million shares and raised $3.4 billion in yesterday's deal. Originally, underwriters had been looking for a range of $14 to $16 per share. A hotly oversubscribed book resulted in talk that the IPO price could have risen as high as $19, based purely on demand. In the end, management was said to eschew higher prices; the SNAP IPO priced at $17.
This morning, shares first traded at $23.71, when the stock opened at about 11:15 p.m.
ET. By 11:50, over 100 million shares had traded hands and SNAP stock continued to make new highs, last quoted at $24.95, up more than 46 percent, in rapid trade. Snap employs 1,859 people and is headquartered in Venice, California. Based on reporting that yesterday's $17 IPO price gave Snap a market capitalization of near $24 billion, today's 40 percent-plus markup ads about about $7.6 billion to Snap's worth.
Move in SNAP stock adds $1.5 billion to Evan Spiegel net worth
Further, based on reports that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was said to own a 17 percent stake of the new SNAP shares, valued at $4.05 billion yesterday, today's SNAP stock spike would add more than $1.5 billion to the 26-year-old's net worth.
Early investors in the firm were said to become millionaires as a result of the deal.
According to Business Insider, analysts with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Nyse: GS) expect Snap revenue to grow by 500 percent to reach $2 billion by 2018. Others, such as Lee Bressler, with Carbon Investment Partners, have noted a "deceleration in user growth" and stated that, despite expected top-line growth, such metrics may be a "clear indicator that Snap is losing its snap."
Tight supply of SNAP shares
Yahoo Finance has indicated that Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) had decided to maintain a position, rather than sell its allotment of SNAP stock "leaving even less supply to float on the secondary market" and possibly being at least partly behind today's rich price markup. Two analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance have issued EPS forecasts for Snap; averages are for losses of $0.43 and $0.16, in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
