SpaceX opens at $150, an 11% pop for the most anticipated debut in history
Key takeaways
- Space X lifted off on its first day as a public company, immediately jumping to $150 a share after it began trading on the Nasdaq, around 11% higher than the $135 figure at which it officially priced its IPO on Thursday.
- The demand for Space X is also a function of its small float, with only about 4% of shares available for public trading, while early investors and employees hold the rest.
- The debut is also one of the largest windfalls in the history of venture capital.
Space X lifted off on its first day as a public company, immediately jumping to $150 a share after it began trading on the Nasdaq, around 11% higher than the $135 figure at which it officially priced its IPO on Thursday.
The stock pop isn’t a surprise. The company’s IPO was oversubscribed by 4x, according to Bloomberg, meaning many institutional investors didn’t receive allocations and are likely buying shares on the open market.
The demand for Space X is also a function of its small float, with only about 4% of shares available for public trading, while early investors and employees hold the rest. SpaceX also successfully lobbied a number of indexes (like the Nasdaq 100) to change their inclusion rules. The company will now join those indexes in a matter of days, not months, increasing demand for SpaceX stock before other large institutions and funds start automatically buying.