Shares of Waltham, MA-based Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) jumped $10 out of the blocks, opening trading around 11:30 this morning at $26 per share. The e-mail marketing firm yesterday priced its 6.7 million-share offering (with some 870,000 of the shares coming from stockholders) at $16 per share, which itself was up from the $12 to $14 range the firm projected a few weeks ago.
In its first half-hour or so of trading, the stock fell as low as $25 and reached as high as $28.01. At just before noon, shares were priced at $27.39.
Constant Contact’s IPO is the latest in a string of area offerings to price above expectations. Last month, Watertown, MA-based Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), which provides online billing and other business services for medical practices, priced at $18 and debuted at $30, and in August EMC subidiary VMware (NYSE: VMW) debuted at $50—a 72 percent premium over its offering price—and has climbed steadily to today’s price of over $90.
UPDATE (Oct. 3): Constant Contact closed its first day of trading at $27.64, up $11.64 (nearly 73 percent).
