Qualtrics stock soars out of the gate, and is valued at more than $21 billion

Shares of Utah-based Qualtrics International Inc.
XM,
+43.20%
soared in their public debut, as the stock, finally, opened 39.5% above its initial public offering price. The SAP-owned
SAP,
-0.34%
SAP,
-1.22%
enterprise-software company’s stock’s first trade on the Nasdaq exchange was at $41.85 at 1:55 p.m. Eastern for about 4.6 million shares. The IPO priced late Wednesday at $30, above the expected range of between $27 and $29 a share, as the company raised $1.55 billion. At the stock’s opening price, Qualtrics’s market capitalization was $21.07 billion. The stock has edged higher since it’s open, to trade up 40.0% at $42.00. Qualtrics went public at a time of relatively strong investor demand for IPOs, as the Renaissance IPO ETF
IPO,
+2.19%
has run up 31.8% over the past three months while the S&P 500
SPX,
+1.84%
has gained 17.0%.