Shares of Shutterstock jumped nearly 30 percent in their first hours of trading, after the Internet provider of stock photos and videos raised $76.5 million in its initial public stock offering.
The New York company, which was one of four IPOs to price on Thursday, sold 4.5 million shares for $17 each, above the expected range of $13 to $15. The pricing indicated there was already strong demand for its stock.
Shutterstock offers commercial digital imagery, which includes licensed photographs, illustrations and videos. These images are then used by businesses for their web sites, market materials, books and other uses. Shutterstock also owns Bigstock, a stock agency that offers credit and pay-as-you-go purchase options.
The company said in filings that it plans to use the offering’s net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including capital expenses and working capital. It also may also use all or some of the funds for acquisitions or investments in other businesses, products or technologies.
Shutterstock had more than 550,000 active, paying users that contributed to its 2011 revenue, marking a more than 71 percent increase from the prior year. Subscription-based users accounted for 59 percent of the recent year’s revenue.
Shutterstock said that it tries to boost the volume of customer purchases and downloads by making its images affordable, averaging less than $3 per image. It delivered more than 58 million paid downloads to customers for the year ended Dec. 31.
The company reported 2011 net income of $21.9 million on revenue of $120.3 million. This compares with 2010 net income of $18.9 million and revenue of $83 million.
The shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the “SSTK” ticker symbol. In morning trading, they gained $4.87, or 28.7 percent, to reach $21.81, after peaking at $22.90 earlier in the session.