LinkedIn Corp's shares more than doubled in their public trading debut on Thursday, evoking memories of the investor love affair with Internet stocks during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.
Shares of the online professional social networking company closed at $94.25, 109 percent above their $45 initial public offering price. They rose as high as $121.97, in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Just two weeks ago, LinkedIn proposed a price range for the IPO that valued it at just over $3 billion. Less than a decade ago, the company was nothing more than an ambitious idea and a computer in one man's living room.
Now, its $8.9 billion market value makes it larger than Harley Davidson Inc, Moodys Corp and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
"It seems to bring back memories of the tech bubble," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "Based on what I know it seems like investors are a little overly enthusiastic."
One hedge fund manager who flipped his holdings in the low-80's described how difficult it was to get shares. "I got 500 shares and was told to consider myself lucky," he said.
LinkedIn share price more than doubles in NYSE debut
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