A day after DoorDash's massive public market debut–and amid the busiest December for IPOs ever–shares of Airbnb skyrocketed 120% during the home rental giant's long-awaited first day of trading, propelling the firm's market cap to more than five times its last private market valuation despite the damper the pandemic is putting on the travel industry,- Forbes reports.
Listed on the technology-heavy Nasdaq exchange under the ticker ABNB, shares of the home rental platform started trading at about 1:35 p.m. EST and nearly immediately surged to a price of more than $150 from an offering price of $68 on Wednesday.
The booming stock price boosted the firm's valuation to roughly $103 billion, compared to $18 billion after the firm's last private funding round in April.
San Francisco-based Airbnb has raised roughly $3.5 billion with its initial public offering, according to financial about platform Dealogic, besting the $3.4 billion raised by DoorDash on Tuesday to become the year's third-largest IPO.
"I don't know what to say," CEO Brian Chesky told Bloomberg TV on Thursday morning in light of whispers of the massive stock surge before shares started trading. "The higher the stock price, the higher the expectations."
The firm originally upped its target price range to between $56 and $60 on Monday–higher than original expectations topping out at $50 per share, which would've valued the firm at roughly $35 billion.
The broader market Thursday was lukewarm when Airbnb started trading, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both virtually flat, while the Nasdaq edged up 0.6%.
