(By Balachander)
Shutterstock Inc. (NYSE:
SSTK), a digital imagery company, priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 4.50 million shares at $17.00 each, well above the expected range amid strong demand.
The New York-based company, which was one of four companies to make their public debut on Thursday, had expected shares to be priced between $13.00 and $15.00 per share.
Shutterstock claims more than 35,000 approved contributors make their images available in its library, which has grown to more than 20 million images. More than 550,000 active, paying users contributed to revenue in 2011, representing an increase of 71 percent compared to the prior year.
The company's commercial digital imagery consists of licensed photographs, illustrations and videos that companies use in their visual communications, such as websites, digital and print marketing materials, corporate communications, books, publications and video content.
For the six months ended June 30, Shutterstock had net income of $9.78 million on revenue of $78.2 million.
Shutterstock has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 675,000 shares to cover over-allotments, if any.
The shares begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SSTK."
Morgan Stanley (MS), Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Jefferies Group Inc. served as lead underwriters.
The stock jumped 27.65 percent to trade at $21.70 at 1.24 pm ET on Thursday.