In Shimmering IPO, E.l.f. Beauty (ELF) Soars 41%

On Thursday, low-priced cosmetics maker e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (TO:ELF) opened up sharply higher on its first day of trading at $24, soaring 41% after pricing its IPO yesterday above the expected range.

The company raised $141 million on Wednesday by pricing 8.3 million shares at $17 per share, above its indicated range of $14 to $16 per share. As of 10:45 AM EST, ELF stock is up 53.88% to $26.16.

e.l.f. Beauty was founded in 2004, and over the past few years, the company has seen tremendous growth thanks to its ability to draw in millennial customers. Through June of this year, it had sales of roughly $50 million, up 33% from the same period a year ago.

Its products are priced on the lower end—customers can by lipsticks for as little as $3—and can be found in drugstores like CVS (NYSE:CVS) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) , as well as retailers like Target (NYSE:TGT) and Old Navy, which is part of Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) .

As a whole, the beauty industry is booming, and e.l.f. Beauty is a standout competitor to beauty retailers like Sephora and Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) .

The company’s IPO is continuing the success of The Trade Desk’s (V:TTD) market debut earlier this week. TTD stock opened up 67% to $30.10 on Wednesday, and had also priced above its initial target at $18 per share. According to Fortune, this week as been one of 2016's most active weeks for U.S. IPOs, as this year has been notoriously slow for public debuts.

e.l.f. Beauty said it would use the proceeds from its IPO to pay off its approximately $204 million worth of debt, and for general corporate purposes. JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Securities and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) are acting as joint lead book-running managers in the IPO, while Piper Jaffray and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Securities are also acting as book-running managers.

Interested in IPOs? Check out the special edition of Zacks Friday Finish Line, where Editor Maddy Johnson and Content Writer Ryan McQueeney interview Kathleen Smith of Renaissance Capital about the IPO market in 2016.

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