Shares of social commerce company Bazaarvoice Inc surged as much as 43 percent on their market debut, as Wall Street continued to welcome cloud-based technology stocks with large first day gains. The company's stock opened at $16, 25 percent above its offer price, and touched a high of $17.16 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq. Shares of another debutant, Proto Labs Inc, which makes custom prototype and low-volume plastic parts, rose as much as 87 percent to $29.99, far above its IPO price of $16.
Bazaarvoice and Proto Labs debuted after pricing IPOs above their indicated range. The last 17 companies that went public had priced their offerings within or below their expected ranges. "The pricing is a positive sign for future offerings ... due to an improved stock market people are getting more optimistic," Morningstar analyst James Krapfel told Reuters.
Bazaarvoice provides its services via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enables clients to engage directly with customers and capture consumer feedback through rising use of internet, mobile, social media and e-commerce. The company served 737 active clients as of January 31, including Wal-Mart, Dominos Pizza, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Dell, Expedia and American Express.