Airbnb opened Thursday at $146 on NASDAQ, exceeding the IPO price of $68 per share that raised $3.5 billion for the company.
The company's stock hit a high of $164.67 and closed at $145.67, which is significantly higher than the $56-$60 range the firm updated at the beginning of the week. At the start of Thursday's trading session, Airbnb had a market capitalization of $86.5 billion. However, its fully diluted valuation ended up at $100.7 billion, more than five times the $18 billion recorded in April. Following this result, Airbnb is officially the largest U.S IPO of 2020.
Airbnb's IPO success represents the culmination of remarkable recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted its business in the first months of 2020. But as soon as governments started to relax their lockdown measures, more travelers opted to book homes instead of hotels, boosting Airbnb's profits. The San Francisco-based firm also took advantage of increased interest in renting homes away from major cities.
"We were planning on going public, then we put our IPO on hold, and this has been the most unbelievable journey. It's been quite a comeback for our hosts and for what I hope will be travel," said Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky, whose stake in the company is now worth around $11 billion.
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Sources: ft.com, MarketWatch.com.