Investors jumped on Petco (San Diego) stock, sending the price up more than 65 percent in the first hours of trading, according to Forbes.
The stock priced above the expected $14 to $17 range and went into the first day oversubscribed. It closed at $29.40, giving the company a market value of over $6 billion.
“In the last 18 months, we’ve rolled out ‘buy online, pick up in store’; ship from store; curbside, same day delivery, a world class app,” Ron Coughlin, Petco’s CEO, said in an interview with CNBC. “The more technology we’ve laid down, the faster our digital business has grown.”
Petco’s opening day success shows Wall Street believes the fast-growing pet market has enough runway to support multiples pet retail stocks and could bode well for the next significant initial public offering of pet goods subscription service, Barkbox, expected early this year.
Petco CEO Ron Coughlin credited his background at HP, where he was President of the PC division, and at Pepsico, where he was Chief Marketing Officer, to help get Petco’s technology up to speed.