The share prices of technology companies Pinterest and Zoom rallied Thursday following their initial public offerings (IPOs).
Shares in Pinterest, the digital pin board, climbed 28% on its first day of trading as a public company. The company’s IPO price was $19 a share and the stock began trading at $23.75, and finished the day at $24.40.
Pinterest’s fully diluted market capitalization totaled over $16 billion at the close of trading Thursday. The closing share price put the company’s value above its last private valuation of $12 billion, avoiding a disappointing IPO.
Zoom, a videoconferencing company, did even better in its IPO Thursday. Shares in the profitable company, which was last valued by private investors at $1 billion shot up 80% in early trading Thursday. The shares ended the day up more than 72%, closing at $62. The company’s fully diluted market capitalization now exceeds $18 billion.
The demand for Zoom stock showed that investors are eager to back lesser-known enterprise software companies — particularly profitable ones — as they are to support high-profile apps geared toward consumers. Shares in PagerDuty, a smaller software start-up, soared 60% on its first day of trading last week. The next big IPO of the year is expected to be ride hailing juggernaut Uber, which is expected to go public in May.
