19th June 2015, New York -Activity tracking company Fitbit made a debut on Wall Street today. The stock price surged more than 50% above its IPO price and remained there for the rest of the day. The stocks are trading on New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT”.
The stock opened at $30.40, 52% above its initial public offering price of $20. Fitbit filed for a $100 million public offering originally . That figurerose to $358 million, using its original share pricing. Fitbit’s IPO raised about $732 million for the company. The company will be able to do a lot more than it had originally planned. The company is valued at $4.1 billion post its IPO. It marks the third-largest U.S. IPO in 2015.
Wearable devices, which track fitness and well-being, is a fast growing market worldwide. According to a report published by IDC on 30th March 2015, wearable device vendors are expected to sell 45.7 million units in 2015 up 133.4% from the 19.6 million units shipped in 2014. The report also suggests that by 2019, companies will sell 126.1 million units, resulting in a 5 year compounded annual growth rate of 45%.
Fitbit was started by James Park and Eric Friedman in 2007. The company is headquartered in San Fransisco, California, United States. The company produces health and fitness devices meant to be wore or strapped to the body to keep a track of steps and distance as well as calories burned and monitor activity intensity such as for sleep and workouts. Fitbit also makes companion software for Smartphone and a Web application which allows you to sync your Fitbit tracker and tie everything to your Fitbit account. This also means you can display stats, get insights and training tips using both web and mobile app.
According to data from Bloomberg,Fitbit sold 10,904,000 devices in 2014. It is said that the company is currently quite profitable and is growing at a fast pace.
